Stardate 62003.84 - New Year's Day

On December 31st Cheryl and I stayed up and watched Knocked Up (our review of that movie will be posted later). We finished the movie at 2345 so we stayed up the extra 15 minutes and watched the ball drop. The whole event just gets more and more underwhelming each year. The 1999-2000 year change was such a big deal that everything else pales in comparison (although maybe it is because the 2001-2002 change was the last time we actually went out to a big event for New Year's).

Anyway, Steve and Rachel and their kids Ethan and Ellie came into the city on January 1st, and we took them to the American Museum of Natural History as our gift to the kids. Since Loren enjoyed it so much when we took her, we joined as members so we can go back for free as much as we want (and we paid for Steve's family as our Christmas gift).



Generally, everyone seemed to have a good time, but we had a significant issue with the coat check. We got there pretty early and there we no lines for the tickets, but there was a line of 20 people or so waiting to check coats. It was a raw, cold, rainy day (and hot in the museum) so we didn't want to have to carry coats around. It took the two people behind the counter 30 minutes to process 20 people. At the end of our trip we took the kids to the cafe and I went to the coat check to get into the line to pick up all the coats. The line was probably 30 people when I got into it, and another 10-15 stacked up behind me. At one point, they closed the doors so that no-one else could get into the line. This action made all the people trying to pick up coats come in through the exit and try to cut into the front of the line, making people picking up coats who were waiting patiently in line (like me!) very angry. It took nearly an hour for me to get the coats, and things were really starting to turn ugly as I collected our coats and left (when the coat check guy was telling a customer to take it up with his supervisor, I knew things were bad). And for the pleasure of this waiting and waiting and waiting we got to pay $2 per coat. I did end up in line behind two women from England so having been there a few times for business I chatted with them, passing the time. My advice - on busy days, keep your coat.

Finally I had our coats and we left the museum and went back to our place for Steve and Rachel to see our co-op and for the kids to play. We ordered great pizza from Pizza Park and as the kids were getting really tired (and Steve's cat allergies were starting to kick in) I took Loren out in the stroller so she could fall asleep for her nap and when I got back Steve and Rachel were just about to head out the door and back to NJ.

NYC