Went over the sea What did I find? A thousand crystal towers A hundred emerald cities And the hand of the watchman In the night sky Points to my beloved A knight in crystal armor

The second day of my NYC trip was spent at one of my favourite places in the entire world, the American Museum of Natural History. I made a commitment to spend the entire day there, for as long as I wanted, uninterrupted. Both times I had been to the museum previously had been crunched time slots. I told myself that were I to pay the $nearly30, that I would finally get my damn money's worth.

I was struggling deeply with the time changes, so I was a few minutes late for my timed ticket, but the staff at the museum were actually some of the absolute nicest, most helpful, and most amicable in the entire city. There wasn't an issue with me being late at all.

One of my dearest friends loves frogs and every time I see anything frog related, I exclaim her name out loud.

FIRST order of business was starting from the top floor of the museum and working my way down, because I had actually never seen the top floor! :*(

I am a sucker for megafauna and this just hit all of the serotonin boxes in my brain.

Hello, Relative.

Speaking of Relatives....

I had totally forgotten that they NATIVE SECTION  WAS RIGHT NEXT TO THE PRIMATES

Surreal to see your people under glass.

LMFAO, WTAF

Controversial take, but my favourite part is always the wild life dioramas. Each diorama is an exact replica of where the specimens were taken from. Whilst I am sad that the animals had to die for science, I know that seeing them up close like this, exhibiting natural behaviours, is crucial for human understanding and conservation efforts; these dioramas were initially made with conversation efforts at the forefront.

I found a whole new-to-me section of the museum I had never seen before!

Outfit check! (which I did get compliments on!)

My face, looking at all this pilfered shit.

I miss you, Cross.

..but now I wannaaaaaaaa

THEM.

I made a goofy TikTok of this, which I don't think anyone thinks is as funny as I do.

Relatives:

The lighting on this little guy is SO DRAMATIC.

The unadulterated JOY this wall brings me.

*sings* "...and this is my beloooooved..."

 v a p o r w a v e

This fills me with inexplicable anxiety.

I was at the museum from about a little after 10am to 3:30ish I think there may have been a  few things that I missed, but I was basically over the crowds at that point. It was also interesting finally going through the entire museum and seeing how deeply problematic and...colonial much of is. Especially in a post-2020 landscape, a lot of these images and terminology are especially shocking. I was also really shocked at the lack of cultural warnings on many of the displays (For example, Indigenous Australians have very strict cultural rules about images and references to the deceased, and the museum just basically pisses on all of that.)

After the museum, I wanted to go through Central Park and experience it during the summer, because I had only ever seen a sliver of it in the winter of February 2015.

One of many trips to venerate this absolute hero.

I *deeply regret* not buying this.

 

I walked from Central Park all the way to the August Wilson to see my friend Julie in FUNNY GIRL.

I fell down the stairs at the August Wilson, and the top of the show had to be halted. I have to say that the front of house staff was amazing and they took time to make sure I was okay.

My body and brain were not communicating with one another for most of the trip, which resulted in terrible brain fog, disassociation, and a lot of injuries. My anxiety was SO BAD every time I had to be near Times Square--worried I was going to run into people I didn't want to see, thinking about how my body wasn't good enough, thinking about how my thighs were too thick or my waist didn't look small enough in photos, etc., etc.

Still, Julie was amazing, and I am very proud of her.

After the show, my friend Anthony came and got me after I had hugged Julie. I was honestly very embarrassed by the whole thing, and was very shaky even after I got to the hotel, because it was such a dramatic and awful fall.