Carbon Copy

New York City (ch. 5)

I've always wanted to go to the Museum of Natural History, but I can't figure out why. I'm not sure what about it caught my interest because, generally speaking, it's not really my thing. So these types of museums get put at the bottom of the list in preference to art museums. But since Tanker had already been to the Met on Friday morning before I got in town, we took the opportunity to visit the Museum of Natural History.

It has a very impressive interior:

Here's a little sampling of all the different kinds of stuff that I saw. I loved all the paintings and models for the exhibits.

That last one totally reminded me of the cover for a book I read in one of my folklore classes, The Potter's Art

Of course one of the things you have to see at the MNH is dinosaur bones.

The coolest thing about this one (which I have subsequently called longasauras because I can't remember its real name) is the tail. It pretty much went the full length of the room.

One of my favorite exhibits was about space. However, they lost no time in removing Pluto from the model of the universe. Sad.

Sometimes I felt like maybe the exhibits were a little too detailed. I don't know if I needed to see the flies on this one.

Finally we come to the underseas exhibit. It was pretty much my favorite.

Tanker and I split up for the museum so we could each see what we wanted to and create our own soundtrack by listening to mp3 devices. I listened to the New Pornographers (in anticipation of the concert that night) and the Polyphonic Spree (because they capture the wonder of it all pretty well, I think.) We said we'd meet back up at 3 in the lobby. I was done by 2 o'clock. I told you. Natural History isn't really my thing. So I sat down next to some dinosaur bones and rested my head in my hands with my eyes closed. I was like this for quite some time when I felt a tap on my shoulder. I looked up, expecting to see Tanker, but a kindly old man greeted me instead and asked me how I was doing. I was startled of course, and I can't remember the whole of our conversation, but he asked me where I was from. I said Utah, and then he told me he was from Indiana. I was like, no way! I go to Purdue! And he got all excited and started telling me the roads I would take to get to his house. He was there to pick up his daughter who just graduated from NYU. She came over later and Joe (that's his name) introduced us. We made small talk (the girl was obviously embarrassed by her dad) and then they turned to leave. Joe half-turned back and said, "Wait, what religion are you?" I answered that I am Mormon, and he said, "Just checking. I figured you would be, but I know not everyone there is." He walked back through the lobby again later. I was still waiting, so he called out my name and said hi. I know it's silly, but it totally made my day.

When Tanker finally showed up, I found out that I had been too hasty in my museum observation and had completely missed the exhibit that I was most hoping to see: the gems. Even though Tanker had just come from there, I made him show me where they were. It's no wonder I missed it. It's completely hidden down a narrow stairway in the basement. Oh well, at least I got to see a glimpse of the world's largest cubic zirconia.