I love having a plan. I love themes. I love planning themed days. Yesterday was History Day, and History Day is absolutely going down as one of my favorite days of the summer. Granted, I've had a lot of favorite days, but this is definitely on the list.
History Day stemmed from the simple fact that I had a miserable day a few days ago, and I wanted to make up for it... Miserable day= I missed dance class by 2 minutes because the stupid bus was running slow, it started raining and I had no umbrella, none of my friends were around, the line at the Museum of Natural History was way too long to even bother (especially since I was all alone and feeling pitiful), I couldn't find shoes that fit me, blah blah blah... SO, I text my friend Katherine to say we had to go to the Museum of Natural History at some point. I also remembered that "The Help" was coming out this week, so I told Katherine we needed to see that as well. Put the two together, and you have the beginning of History Day!
Katherine was having some work done on her apartment, so we decided to start the day with a historic in-house breakfast = pancakes! Pancakes date back to the times of the cavemen, when they would make flat breads on hot stones, and sometimes add berries and such. (at least that's what Wikipedia says). Katherine is a kitchen master and insisted that our pancakes be from scratch. (Those of you who know me know how terrifying the words "from scratch" are to me.) So, history day began with a delightful spread of banana pancakes and cinnamon pancakes with fresh strawberry sauce, cinnamon sugar, syrup, scrambled eggs, and orange juice.
While we waited for Manuel to finish fixing the lock and replacing some bathroom tiles, Katherine, Meghan (my new roommate) and I all sat around the living room talking about "personal history." With a little help from Myers-Briggs and Disney cartoon characters (all somewhat historic), I think we developed an even better understanding of each other- and that's what history is all about, right? We laughed a lot too.
By the time Manuel FINALLY finished up... and let me tell you, it took a while, Meghan had to leave us, and Katherine and I embarked on History Day Part 2 - the Museum of Natural History (the museum from Night at the Museum). We arrived at the museum at about 4:15, perfectly aware that the museum closed each evening at 5:45. Fortunately admission for the museum is "suggested donation" so we donated what we saw fit and began our quest - we would see the entire musuem in under and hour and a half... and we did... minus a couple of people groups, the planetarium, and the brain exhibit... I don't think I've ever had so much fun in a history museum... Don't take that the wrong way. I've thoroughly enjoyed other history museums I've been to, but this trip was strictly for the FUN of it.
Naturally, our first stop was the dinosaur room! DINOSAURS!!! We took pictures.
We then quickly moved to the African Mammal exhibit. We took pictures.
We passed through the reptile room towards the Brain exhibit, but were informed that it was too late to purchase tickets for said exhibit... So we took more pictures in the Hall of Biodiversity; with the people groups of Africa, Asia, and the Pacific Islands; and with the whale and other sea creatures underwater. We saw rocks and monkeys and minerals and skeletons and maps and diagrams and pictures... SO MUCH HISTORY! And when we heard the delightful voice on the intercom explain that the museum was closing, we were satisfied with our conquest and exited the museum with our heads held high.
We walked through the Upper West Side towards Lincoln Center, marvelling at how crisp and clean the buildings looked after the previous night's rain and in the cool clean air, and eventually found ourselves at the movie theatre. We had just enough time to buy our tickets, go across the street for snacks, go back, sit down, and momentarily relax before the movie began... Ahh the magic of History Day... We couldn't have timed that more perfectly if we had tried.
For the next two and a half hours we laughed, cried, and sobbed our way through The Help. If you haven't yet seen it, please do. It is absolutely going on my favorite movies list... I thought there was no way they could do justice to the book, but WOW... It was incredible. And it was so neat for me to watch a movie about my mom's home town from New York City. It was very personal for me, and I was deeply moved. There were so many connections for me in the movie that it's nearly impossible to explain them all here, so if you're truly curious, we can chat later. There was a wonderful moment, though, when Celia gets so excited about shaking the bag to make fried chicken, and Katherine leaned over and whispered "that's so you!"... I got really excited about flipping pancakes earlier that morning. I'm kind of learning to cook this summer... But that's another story for another time... Just go see The Help! SO GOOD!
Well, before the movie we realized we were going to be hungry afterwards, and we had planned to go to Coney Island and get a corndog...because that's historic. Well, after the credits we both looked at each other with puffy eyes and runny noses and decided to forego the Coney Island trip, so we headed back uptown to find food. The night was so crisp and clear that for the first time in a very long time, I got to see a couple of stars!! I LOVE stargazing, and that's one of the things I have really missed about Montevallo, especially. So, to see those stars as we were walking was really special. And there was a massive moon, too. It was perfect! We decided to skip the subway and walk all the way from 66th to 110th to get some food. We at at a semi-historic burger place called Mel's, and it was delicious. The perfect end to an incredible day.
AHHH, History Day! So, today I am taking it easy. Writing blogs, running errands, walking the Brooklyn Bridge and eating at Grimaldi's Pizzaria... you know, no big deal. ;)
Grace be with you,
Lindsey Shea
