Friday, July 22, 2011

Hot, Hot, Hot!!

Chihuly - Ceiling installation
It is the hottest day of the year here in Boston.  According to the news, it hasn’t been this hot since 1926.  They have been interrupting the trashy shows I have been watching all morning with HEAT wave warnings.  I am sitting here in our apartment, SWEATING.  I am tempted to take the shelves out of the refrigerator and get in!  My mom had sent me about 20 text messages about the sales at PC Richards on various air conditioning units and perhaps we should have bought a couple.  The hot temperature actually reminds me how it is in Madrid on a daily basis during the entire summer.  I am glad that this will be a passing heat wave.  A friend’s status on Facebook sums it up with, “No, it's not too hot out. It's the end of July... If you don't like it, I will find pictures and posts about when you complained that it was too cold and snowy out and tag you in them.”  I, for one, can’t get the song, “Feeling HOT, Hot, HOT!” out of my head.

I have been trying to keep myself busy and out of the city.  I haven’t been that impressed with Boston thus far and the latest news releases haven’t helped.  I miss Madrid, my friends, my vinitos, and even my job!  I feel quite lonely here and I am not sure how to fix it other than getting a job so I can meet new people and get a social life going.  I have seen a few friends here and there which is beyond wonderful but I need more!!  I think boredom is the pits.

Boston has just recently been voted by GQ as one of the worst dressed cities in all of the United States and it was surveyed as the “least friendly city”.  I am trying to be positive and keep an open mind but it is proving to be difficult.  I am hoping that I will get on the ball and find a job soon and that in the fall, when it is a bit cooler, I will see more glamorous apparel but who knows.  I know I sound fake but I LOVE fashion and accessories!  Looking cute is not all about spending a lot of money and sports shorts should be worn at the gym or at home.  I went shopping the other day and beaded sandals are on sale at almost every store and they are cuter and they are about the same price as the Reef and Havaiana rubber flip flops I see everybody wearing. 

In the past couple of weeks I have seen two art exhibits.  My mom came up to visit and we went to see the Chihuly Through the Looking Glass exhibit at the Museum of Fine Arts Boston.  The exhibit was amazing as is the museum.  We rented the audio guides, which I think are always necessary at museums so you learn more.  The audio guides had videos about the installation of the glass exhibits that is a very complex process and ends up creating the marvels in front of your eyes.  His hanging glass chandeliers were actually inspired by the chandeliers that were hanging at a restaurant he ate at in Barcelona.  Dale Chihuly revolutionalized the art of blowing glass and made “craft art” into something spectacular.

One of his hanging chandeliers
I drove down to my hometown with my mom the next day and stayed there for a couple of nights.  My hometown hasn’t changed which in some ways is refreshing but in others, I am not a particular fan of time standing still.  I saw a bunch of great friends and then headed to New York.

Once I arrived in New York, I caught the 6 subway uptown to go see the Alexander McQueen Savage Beauty exhibit at the Met.  I was told that I could drop my carry-on case, which I refer to as a trolley at the museum.  So, I walk into the left entrance where they have a coat check all excited and suddenly, I was surrounded by 5 security guards.  I felt like I was back at the airport in Tel Aviv.  They all informed me that suitcases couldn’t be checked in.  My trolley didn’t have a bomb in it but it is reassuring to know that the Art and people viewing the art are safe!


I left the museum with my trolley in a flash, caught a whiff of the greasy hotdogs from the hotdog stand right outside the museum and caught a taxi.  I hightailed it up to my brother’s apartment and left my bombless bag with his doorman.  I took a taxi back to the museum and decided to enter through the main entrance.  I bought my ticket and got the audio guide, which wasn’t as high tech as the one in Boston but it served its purpose.  I was then informed that there was a 45-minute wait to see the McQueen exhibit.  The time passed by quickly because I kept punching in the numbers to learn about the art along the way.  Suddenly, I see a woman on her cell phone.  She proceeded to make herself at home at the museum as she put her elbows on a Rodin statue!  I was in such a state of shock that I couldn’t get out my phone to take a photo.  She was talking with her elbows on the Rodin for about 4 minutes before an irate guard told her that if she didn’t remove herself from the statue, he would have to escort her out of the museum.  She didn’t even apologize but look annoyed!  Don’t touch art!

Then whilst on the queue, a woman and her friend had tickets to see a show at 2PM and she was trying to bribe the woman who was making the line move with a buck to cut the line.  What are the rest of us, chopped liver? 

Finally, my moment to enter the exhibit arrived.  I was in aw.  I loved all of the pieces and videos on display.  I found the exhibit spectacular and the commentaries on the audio guide were amazing.  Some complained that the exhibit had no "ready wear" but it left me breathless.  Lee was a pioneer of fashion who often looked to the ugly things in nature to inspire his collections.  I had goose bumps and I thought it was wonderful.  It made me wonder what the Duchess of Cambridge dress would have really looked like had he designed it himself but some, like the Clothes Whisperer has an idea about that.  If I had my trolley with me, I probably would have been tempted to put a couple of the pieces in there!!! 


I went through the museum and aside from the impressive collection, I was most impressed by a group of kids painting famous paintings.  It is so inspiring to see kids inspired by art.


A child painting Monet's Water Lilies
I decided to walk back up to my brother’s to retrieve my trolley.  I got an ice coffee along the way.  I love coffee in New York.  Once I got to my brother’s, the doorman told me the best and easiest route downtown would be to take the bus down 5th Ave.  It wasn’t peak hour so there weren’t many riders but there was one in particular that caught my attention.  A big colored lady was talking on her imaginary cell phone and every minute or so, she would give the bird out the window to the passersby on the sidewalk.  The conversation in her fluctuating voice from sweet to mean went like this: 

“I didn’t ask you to do that….now, why would you do that?...why would you cheat?...I’m still on the bus….going downtown….to the bank….yep, I am still on the bus…You are so sweet…that was so nice of you.”

A psychologist would have a field day with that one.

I love New York.  I actually felt at “home”.  I stayed with my former boss at Christie’s and we had the best time.  We walked around the Chelsea Market, ate at Dos Caminos in the meat packing district, went shoe shopping where we tried on some of the ugliest shoes ever and had a good laugh and then we had a cocktail party at his apartment with some of my dear friends and then we ate at a Thai place right around the corner.

The next night, I had a soiree with 5 sorority sisters that was fabulous.  I hadn’t seen some since I graduated last century and it was like a day hadn’t past.  It was a true delight to see them.  We started off at Bar’rique on Bleaker and then we ate Mexican at Florencia 13.  The night ended with a few of us smoking a hooka at Le Souk, which I will refer to as Le Sketchy. 

I took the train back to Boston and it was the second time I had ever been to Penn Station.  As I was entering the train station, a bum told me that I looked like a famous actor from “Too Close for Comfort.”  Things that make you go hmmm.

On the train ride, there were a couple of highlights.  The girl who sat next to me was reading The Valley of the Dolls which I think is the BEST book EVER and she had borrowed it from the LIBRARY!  It is the Sex & the City of the 40s – you have to read it.  Behind me, I had a man of whom I can name from JP Morgan talking business on his cell phone the ENTIRE three and a half hour ride to Boston.  I could tell you the latest deals and how one of his PowerPoint presentations should be revamped so the deal will “run up”.  He ended each conversation with “Have a nice weekend.”  POR DIOS!! 

Once back in Boston, the toro and I played tourists.  We walked through Harvard and I rubbed John Harvard’s brass foot.  Apparently, an image of John Harvard doesn’t exist and the sculpture used a person who looked similar to him after his death.  According to legend, rubbing the foot isn’t lucky, tourist like myself do it while students pee on it.  Don’t worry; I washed my hands after I read about it on the new toy.



Stay tuned for more!! 

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