It's a Wonderful Town!

I love NY!

Yes, it's cliche, and for sale on t-shirts (hats, mugs, bumperstickers, bibs, ad infinitem) all around the city. But it's true. After the people and the pets in my life, I'm just crazy about the city. They do say that converts are the most zealous adherents, and I came to New York as a twentysomething and did lots of growing up there (which was usually not fun but always very memorable and with such a great backdrop!). I've lived (and/or worked) there off and on for the last 15 years. Even when I was not there, it loomed large in my psyche. And still does.

But it had been two years since I'd been there on my own. We went in as a family to see the tree each of the last two Christmases, but that's not the same. I had sworn I would regularly take a break from SAHMdom and go into town--to see friends, museums, the city in its entirety. But things don't always go as planned and we kept putting it off.

So when my school asked for speakers on careers outside of academia, I jumped at the chance and volunteered to speak on museum education. And that was yesterday. Evening. Which meant I had a whole day in town to play beforehand.

And I spent it all at the Met. One of my favorite parts of the day was actually riding the M1 up Madison to the museum, seeing old haunts, getting reacquainted with the smells, sounds, feel of the city. It's always something different--this time I noticed all the strollers. No suburban Gracos these, but all Maclarens. Usually containing white-blonde kiddos pushed by women of color. Then nannies not in the Nanny Diaries. I also always forget how much smoking goes on there--I breathed in more secondhand smoke in 15 hours than I've breathed in during 6 years in Connecticut. I don't miss that at all. But I do miss almost everything else (though, not that skanky stinky sidewalk puddle goo that was thankfully minimal yesterday, especially on the Upper East Side)--the architecture, the variety of people, the various shops, the food carts, the food (and yes, I did stick to my veg diet, though not to WW--too many good things to eat).

And the museum. Oh, the museum. The Met was the first stop on my visit when I started grad school so many years ago. My mom and I walked into that glorious Great Hall and I knew I wanted to work there (I have been an intern there, for a short stint, and loved it, but it's not the same). Until that time, I just love visiting--Astor Court with its scholar's garden, the rehung 19th-century galleries which contain more academic art now than they did 15 years ago, the Pompeiian wall paintings, the temple of Dendur, the Costume Institute (which was closed because they'd just had the "party of the year" last night), all those wonderful Vermeers, the American sculpture garden, the rooftop. Well, almost every gallery. Mama and I had some very memorable evenings there.

I didn't see it all yesterday, trying to take in a few of the exhibitions, including Poussin (I was thrilled to remember all the reasons why he's so significant--without having to read the labels!) and Chinese masterpieces (for which I had to read all the labels, and spent more time doing that than looking at the art), as well as some re-installations I hadn't seen, such as the "new" Greco-Roman galleries. All I can say about that last one is wow! Part of me wishes they'd restored the fountain to its Mixed-Up Files of Mrs Basil E. Frankweiler days, but I love the garden-like installation of Roman sculpture (which looks a lot like Picon's installation of sculpture at SAMA so many years ago when I was an intern there). It had me wishing I remembered more of my Greek and Latin (especially because my grad-school-buddies-turned-moms peppered me with questions!). But it was special to see the works get the attention they so richly deserve--the old galleries were an embarrassment. We had a delightful lunch in the "new" cafeteria and then I returned to the galleries and the gift shop (trying to remember I'd have to lug anything that I bought, so I was quite sensible).

And there, in the biggest city in the country, I ran into someone I knew totally unexpectedly. She had worked at my last job and has since left and we bumped into each other, almost quite literally, on the steps of the Met. It's a small world sometimes, even in NYC.

Finally full of culture and foot-sore, the proverbial museum fatigue, I took the M4 down Fifth to school, where my talk would be. I would recommend that route--down the side of the park past the Plaza and through the Fifth Avenue shopping corridor--to all visitors to the city. It's a cheap and easy way to get a real sense of (that part of) the city. They were even filming something at the NYPL, but I didn't get out. I was early to the talk but enjoyed the break to keep reading my book. It's the most concentrated reading I've done in 3 years--1+ hours on the train, 30 min at school, another 1 hour on the train home--it was an unexpected bonus in an already good day.

My talk in the evening went well, nothing stressful, just a chance to talk about career opportunities. I even made a few new connections among the other presenters. I took my first cab of the day (and I love riding in cabs!) back to GCT and did some shopping before my train home. I got us some incredible cheese at Murray's, plus membrillo and crackers, as a treat for Mama. And I got dinner--a NY slice (the soup place was already closed, but it was my first choice with it's great and novel soups) plus a piece of Junior's incredible devil's food cheesecake (a piece of cheesecake, with chocolate ganache filling, and a chocoloate cake layer on top, all topped with chocolate frosting!!!). The only food I didn't have was an almond horn cookie, which I love, but the bakery was closed when I went to look for one. Oh, well, I can almost make one of those.

And so I rode the train home, just like I did so many times when I was working in the city. It's a long ride home, with more stops, and I was ready to be home. As much fun as I had, I'm glad not to have to work there anymore.

Or anywhere.

But I will go back to my city again . . . and sooner than 2 years from now.