Creatures of Light and a Cold

            While waiting for the subway a couple of weeks ago, I took notice of a poster ad for a new exhibit at the American Museum of Natural History called the Creatures of Light. The poster had a picture of giant jellyfish, so I figured it was about underwater creatures that illuminate. This particular museum is widely known for having all variety of human, plant, and animal life on display. I went there about a year ago and saw just about everything, but the place is so big I'm sure I missed a few items, and plus with this new Creatures of Light available, there was more than enough of a reason to return.

             A few days before I had gone I was feeling a little under the weather. I felt something in my throat that wasn't normal and it was that phase when you know you could get sick at any moment. Despite that, I marched on forward and took the subway down into the city. It was a rather decent day, so instead of transferring to another train to take me towards the west side of Manhattan where the museum is located, I decided to get off on the east side so I would have an excuse to cut through Central Park. On my way there I had to walk across Park Avenue, with its many flower beds, and saw a cab driver stopped at a red light and taking pictures of the bright yellow flowers with his iPhone. When I reached 5th Avenue I was near the park's entrance and I overheard a parks department worker complain to a hotdog vendor that his napkins were being cited as a nuisance since customers throw them on the floor and it becomes more work to clean up. I didn't see anyway how that conflict could be settled, so I headed into the park to see what animals where out and about. Naturally there were pigeons, squirrels, starlings, ducks, and sparrows, but what stood out was that there were a ton of robins. Usually with robins you see one or two and that's it, but for whatever reason they were in heavy numbers at Central Park, probably in attempt to push the pigeons out.

             After a fifteen minute walk to cut through the park, I arrived at Central Park West where the museum lies. As usual, there were a ton of tourists on the large steps feasting on the goods of the hotdog vendors and falafel truck stationed out front. The giant Teddy Roosevelt statue was there as always and a pigeon was using the platform as a place to preen its feathers. The Roosevelt statue and the museum were centerpieces in the 2006 film "Night at the Museum". Once I got inside I saw that the place was an absolute mob scene. Just about every tourist in New York City that day had to have been at this museum. If that wasn't enough people, due to the Passover holiday, it seemed as if the entire Tri-State area Hasidic community was in attendance too. The line looked ridiculous and at least a half hour wait, luckily there was a  kiosks machine in which I was able to purchase tickets immediately. The only snafu with using the machine is that since its automated, you have to pay the suggested museum entrance fee of nineteen dollars, whereas if I did the line I could have paid any other fee I wished. After I purchased my ticket, I realized that's why most patrons were opting to wait on the long line versus using the machine. The machine did list other exhibits to add onto my ticket for a separate fees, but it wasn't listing the specific Creatures of Light display, so the only conclusion there was that it was included in the general admission. 

             There was a security guard on hand to make sure that patrons had their tickets before the entrance into the main part of the museum, but there was such an overflow of people entering at once that I really could've just walked in without buying a ticket at all. The main hall looked the same as it always does with the giant elephants in the middle and the different stuffed animals behind glass alongside the walls. What was different from my previous visits was just the sight of thousands of people packed into the place. With this many people in close confines came the mass sneezing and coughing. I was already on the borderline of getting sick before going to the museum, this was certainly going to be the nail in the coffin. About ten minutes into my entrance I was feeling feverish, my nose started running, and all the energy was zapped out of my body; I officially had a cold. I unzipped my sweater to cool down a little and went to the bathroom to pick up a pocket full of napkins for my nose. There were five floors of displays and the Creatures of Light exhibit to see, cold or no cold, I was going to have to fight through it. 

             I made my way through the different cultures; there were the African Peoples, Asian Peoples, Latin and Central American Peoples. The best was in the Asian section and watching a pair of tourists from India seeing a display of Indian people behind glass. It would be as if I went to a museum in India and saw a display of what an American looks like behind glass. They probably felt weird about it, but it was amusing to watch. As I made my way through the museum I wasn't seeing anything about the Creatures of Light until I consulted a map near the elevators. It was featured at the 5th floor, the top floor, which also houses the dinosaur bones. When I reached the floor I asked a museum worker to point me in the right direction, but then she hit me with a hard piece of news. She told me the Creatures of Light walk-through was sold out for the day, which makes sense why I didn't see it listed when I used the kiosks to purchase my ticket earlier. I had come all this way and gotten a cold over nothing. I'm not sure if she wanted to soften the blow or if she was telling me the truth, but she went on to say the six-dollar exhibit isn't really that great anyways and that there is more interesting things to see at the museum. I told myself that's the last time I put faith in an ad at a subway station. She let me know where I could find it, but without a ticket there would be no way I could get in (and for some reason I don't think people bribe museum guards for extra knowledge). I was able to take some comfort in the dinosaur bones which are always impressive. There's the raptor, a brontosaurus, and the king of the prehistoric jungle the t-rex. There's also bones for a number of other dinosaurs as well as regular animals such as bears and leopards. 

             From the top floor I worked my way down to the floors under me and any displays I might've missed previously, such as the gorilla and monkey wing. Each stuffed primate had a personality of it's own that it was almost scary. A floor I didn't get to see last year was the basement, which also features a cafe. I was still feeling the fever, so I purchased a nice four-dollar bottle of iced tea to hydrate myself. While I was waiting on the line I saw the cashier was getting angry at one of the other workers for goofing off too much. She reminded him that she always has to leave the register to do his job as well. When I was there it seemed like he was spending most of the time in the break room doing who knows what. My final viewing of the day was the mineral room. It was set up with all sorts of gems and valuable rocks, some were even out in the open to touch (and not take home). As I was trying to exit the museum I went by the IMAX theater, also located in the basement, and must have passed by at least a thousand people lined up for some 4:30pm show about something. The money the museum must have made from that one show, plus the rest of the shows lined up, plus all the entrance fees of the thousands that flocked to the museum that day, had to have been astronomical. 

             The money to feed all those stuffed animals has to come from somewhere....