Met Museum
Today we had a trip to the city. We gathered with Elaine, Sophie, Amanda, Amber, Winnie and their moms for the travel. That's 5 girls to babysit, quite a handful! Yeah, I'm usually the babysitter when I'm with a bunch of kids. Luckily Sophie was old enough look after the kids. Winnie was older than me, but she's...not great with children, and prefers to stick with her mom. So it came down to 3 adults versus 7 kids. Fun!
Being residents in Long Island with the LIRR, going to NYC isn't so difficult. Better yet, it was only a 10 minute walk from my house to the train station, so we walked there at 9 in the morning, no rush no hassle. It's New Year's Eve, so one might expect the purpose of our trip to be to count down to midnight and watch the iconic "ball drop" in Times Square marking the beginning of a new year. We actually did not plan that. We went to the city to visit the Metropolitan Museum of Art.
I mean, we could've stayed at the city after seeing the museum and be a part of the BIG event, but we chose not to. We chose not to cram in a small area with another million people for an entire evening, and wear diapers for excretion, which people had to do because they couldn't get to a bathroom. I think about the tourists coming from over the globe for this experience, and how disappointing it is for us, who live so close to the city, to turn down the opportunity to be in the world event. But it's not. The lights, the performances, and the atmosphere are just as good on TV, where we could sit or lie down comfortably on the couch and avoid the misery of being there. It feels real when you blast the music on full volume and have a party at home with a bunch of people. It's better!
Seeing the train and subway tracks below me always made me panicky. So I held on to lil' brother Sean whenever I walked past those tracks, for both his comfort and my comfort. I used up half of my phone's battery on the train playing Clash and A Dark Room (another great game) on the train, even though I brought a book to read and should be doing that instead. No, it's extremely difficult, if not impossible, to resist the temptation to touch my phone when it's on me. I needed my phone to last the whole day, and that's not happening. I SHOULD'VE BROUGHT MY CHARGER! No, I should stop using my phone. But yes, a dead phone was going to be very bad for me later in the day.
One thing that kind of ruined it for some of us was how much of a pain Elaine has been throughout the whole trip, because she's the biggest complainer - griever, crybaby, whiner, non-shutuper - EVER. She's a 7 year old like Sean, but cries 5 times more, and has a voice that's hell to my guddam ears. Like she sounds whiny whenever a word comes out of her. So she was dissatisfied with everything that went on and wants it to be some other way. Elaine is always glued to her mom and would start crying if mommy left for two seconds. And she even gets jealous when her mom gives more attention on something else, so it's pretty torturing. It seems that love from her parents is Elaine's greatest desire, and somehow she's not getting it. My parents suggested many methods for her parents to show more love, and tried to point out flaws in their parenting. I could see that, the way Mickie criticized Elaine for being so annoying certainly did not appear loving. Apparently nothing worked so far, so maybe Elaine is just too attached and needs to become more independent.
Speaking of which, Sean is probably the dead opposite of Elaine. He's TOO independent and tries to get away from our parents as much as possible. The museum might've interested him for a short while, but he soon became restless. I can't blame him - the museum is great and awesome, no doubt, but honestly after looking at art for 3 hours, I lost excitement too. I appreciate art very much; I'm just not a total fanatic about art. What can I expect from my little brother?
One subject that did catch my eyes though was the European art, specifically the Greco-Roman statues and European paintings - that are of nude people. There were a lot of these in the museum, and they're interesting because you don't see them often. Nowadays art of that sort are considered "inappropriate". People were obviously different back then. Nudity is beautiful. That's what was thought back then, and what I think. So why not now? Why can't today's society accept the beauty of nature? Why the censorship! What if everybody was always naked? Obviously we would be cold, but we would get used to the weather, through evolution or something. I think that we will become more comfortable with our nakedness. Then it no longer will be so unreasonably taboo.
After seeing the Asian wing, which Mom longed to visit for the Chinese arts, Sean ran off and decided to venture out on his own. I quickly caught up and commanded him to come back. He said that he was thirsty and wanted to fill up the water bottle. I was trying to get him to return, so I said that drinking is not allowed in the museum, but he was very thirsty and tired and wouldn't walk unless I take him to the water fountain. So I had to concede.
Now, the museum is BIG, I tell you. I could not for the life of me find a restroom anywhere. I pulled out my map and found a restroom sign in the "Met Store" area, so I looked for that. When we got to the Met Store, we walked around it twice and still weren't anywhere near a restroom. Then I realized that I was looking at the ground floor map and we were on the floor above, in a different Met Store. "Derp." That was stupid indeed. I was tired of walking, and even though Sean was all of a sudden not tired anymore, I asked a staff member for the nearest restroom location. She said it was in the Egyptian wing. We followed the map to the Egyptian wing, which took a long time because our sense of direction was horrible. Then we walked a long way to where I thought the restroom was, but the fountain was not in the restroom! It was in fact on the other side!
So we walked all the way back and finally got to the fountain. Sean must've been happy to be away from Mom, but I was so done. "All right, you done drinking? Let's go back to our group!" I hurried. My phone would've been so useful at that moment, but it was dead. Dagnabbit! I figured that our group would likely still be waiting in or around the Asian wing, which was upstairs. I looked for an elevator. The nearest one was in the Greco-Roman area according to the map. As we walked through statues of men with half-broken genitals - some with testicles in tact but no penis, and others with missing testicles - we came across two elevators across from each other, but both blocked by ropes. That means they weren't supposed to be used, but I was desperate to get back, so my "YOLO"/"screw it" attitude kicked in. I pressed the button and stepped over the rope to get in. Sean followed and crawled under it. Just when I was feeling all smug about the rebel I was being, the hugest scare occurred.
The elevator doors closed, and the button to second floor would not work no matter how many times I pressed. I was like this:
I never thought I had claustrophobia, but I was definitely in a panic: heart dropping, sinking, jumping, skipping, feeling nauseous and all the other nasty effects. I felt stupid later about this because all I really had to do was press the "open door" button. I legitimately believed that we were stuck in an elevator.
After that incident. I swore to stop wandering around alone in this enormous museum. I told Sean that I was going to borrow a telephone so we can call Mom, but he wanted to continue. Getting stuck in an elevator was apparently a "fun adventure" for him. I had to say no. I dragged him along to the lobby, a good checkpoint in which our group can find us.
"Sean, come on! We need to find a telephone...oh," I saw Sean waving his hand at somebody. Yes! We found them...or they found us! That's great news anyhow. Sophie and Amanda were standing on the balcony just above us. Without hesitating, I ran up the stairs to reach the balcony. Sean followed with as much excitement as I had. Mom was not happy. She had been waiting outside the Asian wing for an hour. She called my phone at least 10 times, with no answer. I could imagine how it felt. Our names could've been announced on the loudspeaker.
Whatever.
One subject that did catch my eyes though was the European art, specifically the Greco-Roman statues and European paintings - that are of nude people. There were a lot of these in the museum, and they're interesting because you don't see them often. Nowadays art of that sort are considered "inappropriate". People were obviously different back then. Nudity is beautiful. That's what was thought back then, and what I think. So why not now? Why can't today's society accept the beauty of nature? Why the censorship! What if everybody was always naked? Obviously we would be cold, but we would get used to the weather, through evolution or something. I think that we will become more comfortable with our nakedness. Then it no longer will be so unreasonably taboo.
After seeing the Asian wing, which Mom longed to visit for the Chinese arts, Sean ran off and decided to venture out on his own. I quickly caught up and commanded him to come back. He said that he was thirsty and wanted to fill up the water bottle. I was trying to get him to return, so I said that drinking is not allowed in the museum, but he was very thirsty and tired and wouldn't walk unless I take him to the water fountain. So I had to concede.
Now, the museum is BIG, I tell you. I could not for the life of me find a restroom anywhere. I pulled out my map and found a restroom sign in the "Met Store" area, so I looked for that. When we got to the Met Store, we walked around it twice and still weren't anywhere near a restroom. Then I realized that I was looking at the ground floor map and we were on the floor above, in a different Met Store. "Derp." That was stupid indeed. I was tired of walking, and even though Sean was all of a sudden not tired anymore, I asked a staff member for the nearest restroom location. She said it was in the Egyptian wing. We followed the map to the Egyptian wing, which took a long time because our sense of direction was horrible. Then we walked a long way to where I thought the restroom was, but the fountain was not in the restroom! It was in fact on the other side!
So we walked all the way back and finally got to the fountain. Sean must've been happy to be away from Mom, but I was so done. "All right, you done drinking? Let's go back to our group!" I hurried. My phone would've been so useful at that moment, but it was dead. Dagnabbit! I figured that our group would likely still be waiting in or around the Asian wing, which was upstairs. I looked for an elevator. The nearest one was in the Greco-Roman area according to the map. As we walked through statues of men with half-broken genitals - some with testicles in tact but no penis, and others with missing testicles - we came across two elevators across from each other, but both blocked by ropes. That means they weren't supposed to be used, but I was desperate to get back, so my "YOLO"/"screw it" attitude kicked in. I pressed the button and stepped over the rope to get in. Sean followed and crawled under it. Just when I was feeling all smug about the rebel I was being, the hugest scare occurred.
The elevator doors closed, and the button to second floor would not work no matter how many times I pressed. I was like this:
I never thought I had claustrophobia, but I was definitely in a panic: heart dropping, sinking, jumping, skipping, feeling nauseous and all the other nasty effects. I felt stupid later about this because all I really had to do was press the "open door" button. I legitimately believed that we were stuck in an elevator.
After that incident. I swore to stop wandering around alone in this enormous museum. I told Sean that I was going to borrow a telephone so we can call Mom, but he wanted to continue. Getting stuck in an elevator was apparently a "fun adventure" for him. I had to say no. I dragged him along to the lobby, a good checkpoint in which our group can find us.
"Sean, come on! We need to find a telephone...oh," I saw Sean waving his hand at somebody. Yes! We found them...or they found us! That's great news anyhow. Sophie and Amanda were standing on the balcony just above us. Without hesitating, I ran up the stairs to reach the balcony. Sean followed with as much excitement as I had. Mom was not happy. She had been waiting outside the Asian wing for an hour. She called my phone at least 10 times, with no answer. I could imagine how it felt. Our names could've been announced on the loudspeaker.
Whatever.
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