New York Friday

While Jimmy and his friend headed out to Long Island, Ginny and I headed to the Metropolitan Museum of Art. The Egyptian exhibit takes up a good deal of space on the first floor. Housed in a glass enclosure, the rooms are airy and bright. It is truly amazing to walk into real ancient Egyptian structures. I think I was most impressed with folded linen sheets in one exhibit. Such finely woven cloth . . . . so ancient. I also don't remember seeing human hair, still styled.

I don't remember the musical instrument display from the last time - an amazing collection of instruments - some familiar others very beautiful and different.

We wandered through the European painters. We headed toward the cafeteria and found that the medieval area called to us. We explored the stained glass and choir screen.

I was not surprised to run into my friend Debbie Rivas and her daughter. I knew we would be in New York at the same time, but I was not expecting to see her. But I knew she planned a visit to the met, so it felt very appropriate to see her there.


We explored a lot of the museum, but it is so big, we really only covered about one third of it.

Naturally we stopped at the museum store. While Ginny shopped more extensively than I, I found a place to sit. The lady beside me was concerned because her husband was almost 30 minutes late in meeting her. Because he had recently had a heart attack, she was nervous. I tried to keep her chatting with her mind away from her worry as long as I could. It is these little chance opportunities that I think God places in our path that allow us to encourage the people around us - even total strangers.

Ginny had a rehearsal dinner so we caught the bus back. I tend to choose subways in big cities because they run on a track and I can easily predict where they will go. I tend to think that buses can turn at any corner and take me somewhere that might not be where I wanted to end up. (Not rational, I know) But the bus ride was perfect - we got to see 5th Avenue, we were picked up right at the Metropolitan Museum and we were deposited two blocks from the hotel. Yes, I definitely need to check out buses more frequently.

While Ginny enjoyed the rehearsal dinner, I did some shopping and ate at a Korean restaurant near the hotel. My second attempt to ride the bus failed, as the bus never showed up. After about 20 minutes I gave up and rode the subway. The Korean restaurant was fun. Rather than a "box" meal, they served the small courses in little bowls. I got a stir friend calamari as my main entre.

As I was getting a little tired, it was nice to call it an evening early.