I love New York in May

I love visiting New York.  I am here for some work, extending my visit so I can do tourist things. This trip, I am going to finally get to The Cloisters. Well, maybe. So much art. So little time.

I don't know much about what tourist things there are to do outside of art. Theater, sure, but that gets expensive and I don't much care about live theater.  I'm glad its there for others.

I took my niece, Izzy, to see Cats. First we stood in a long line inside the World Trade Center (pre-911!) to buy cheaper tickets. One of those day-of-the-show ticket sales booths was in the WTC. We struck up a conversation with a young woman from Ireland. Izzy's then-parents (a then-stepfather and her mom) were in Ireland.  I was the 10 ten babysitter.

When we went to 'Cats', waiting in the lobby to move into the theater, we struck up a conversation with some older man who, upon hearing she was my niece, asked us if she were really my niece or if we just called me her aunt for social reasons. "I am her mother's sister, I am her aunt, she is my niece" I assured him but he continued to voice his disbelief.

Once, my sister and niece met met in the Walker Sculpture Garden while I was getting some tour guide training. They arrived just as my class was ending. I introduced sister and niece to another art docent who said "you didn't have to tell me they were your relatives, my goodness, you all look so alike".

I think what that old coot in the Cats lobby was focussed on was my fat. Izzy was not.

I thought Cats was unusually boring, although toddler Izzy liked the crawling cats.  I couldn't believe it had run a very long time on Broadway.  But its a musical. Splashy musicals are fun (Cats did not strike me as splashy . . . I just didn't get it) but they are not much of a draw for me.

If I were going to see a play, it would definitely be "Angels in America".  We'll see if we can get tix while I'm in NYC. It's pretty last minute.

And one can always get into art spaces!