Tuesday, May 20, 2008

Waning Moon

Pluto Retrograde

Jupiter Retrograde

Rainy and mild

My head is so stuffed full of information, it’s ready to
burst.  It was a good day, but a long
one.

Train ride in was mediocre, as usual.  I couldn’t stand the thought of being
underground, so I decided to take the bus up Madison Avenue and then across 79th St.
to the west side.  The bus ride up Madison was
excruciatingly slow, because there was a water main break at 57th St.  The ride across the park was fine, except for
the bratty, spoiled little rich kids with their nannies on the bus.  One, in particular, a little girl of about
six, was exceptionally horrid.  Tantrums,
screaming, whining, hitting other kids, trying to hit adults.  She didn’t try it with me – like most
bullies, she’s a coward at heart.  I
glared at her once and she hid behind the nanny.   I’m not one for hitting a kid very often,
but this one needed a good smack. 
Actually, maybe if they started by telling her “no” occasionally – and
meaning it – it would make a difference. 
If she’s like this at six, what will she be like as a teenager, or as an
adult?  It’s a shame, because she’s very
pretty.  Too bad the inside doesn’t match
the outside.

The Museum
of Natural History was
full of kids.  I forgot that this is the
time of year for school trips.  You can
tell the city kids from the suburban kids. 
The city kids are loud and rambunctious, but, living in the city,
they’re very aware of personal space. 
They invade their friends’ space, but they’re careful not to invade that
of strangers.  The suburban kids have the
same unwarranted sense of entitlement that their parents do, and just don’t
care. 

There was a really cute little boy of about eight with his
dad, who thought EVERYTHING was AMAZING. 
There was a little girl of about eight or nine making sure her younger
brothers and sisters didn’t wander off – there were about five in that
group.  The youngest could barely walk,
but liked all the animals.  She’d read a
bunch of books before coming to the museum and was telling them stories about
everything – it was great.  A
teacher-in-the-making (and most of it was even right).  There was a girl of about eleven or twelve
sketching, photographing, taking lots of notes in the Northwest Coastal Indians
exhibit.  Either she had a paper to
write, or she’s an archaeologist-in-the-making. 
One little kid fell asleep in a corner of the Hall of Gems – it’s dark
and only the cases with the gems are lit. 
There was a group of teenaged boys wandering through North American Mammals,
singing Pat Benatar lyrics.  I told them
I was impressed that they knew the lyrics to her songs, and they all blushed.

The Museum has a lot of stuff for kids, and several of the
shops are geared specifically towards kids, filled with learning toys and books
– really, they have one of the best shops I’ve ever seen.  Low on the kitschy souvenirs, high on the
education-presented-engagingly.

I wandered through the special floor of the main store
dedicated to books.  I could have easily
dropped nine or ten THOUSAND dollars just in that bookstore.  Fabulous stuff.

I visited some of my favorites – the Blue Whale, the African
elephants, the owls, the biodiversity exhibit. 
I spent more time in the Human Evolution exhibit than I planned, because
they were explaining archaeological and anthropological methods and
evaluations, and I figured that would be good for the Gwen/Justin books.

Read more . . .