BFF Visit: Day Four

I live in New York. Sometimes there are rodent "issues." Now here is a little story my BFF, Erca Whale, will not have known about until reading this blog...

My sister and I hadn't had mouse issues in our apartment for awhile. However, as Erc and I watched tv on the couch in the morning, I heard a high-pitched wailing "mousey" sound - you know, one it'd make if its body was stuck to a glue trap. Yep, that one. However, sometimes the birds that chirp outside the window sound that way. I told Erica it was birds. Erc has bad hearing anyway, so she didn't hear anything, but I raised the volume on the tv anyhow. When it was time to start the day and take showers - which I insisted she take one first - I dealt with this mouse issue. I didn't want Erc to feel gross about our apartment or uncomfortable in any way, so while she showered, I took a broom handle and kind of jimmied the trap from behind the fridge. I somehow finnagled it onto a dust pan and then dropped it into a trash bag. (I've performed this method a handful of times, but this was the most difficult, I think). I placed the trash bag outside my apartment door to take out later.

After we got ready, Erc and I left the apartment to check out Economy Candy. As I carried the trash, Erc was completely oblivious to the fact that I was carrying a dead mouse walking, figuratively. I tossed him in the trash bin outside, walked out of the building and didn't say a word. See, Erc, I love you so much I didn't want you feeling the least bit uncomfortable. I know you wouldn't really care, but if that had happened to me, I'd feel kind of gross about sleeping on the futon again...

The plan had been that we'd go grocery shopping as well and have a picnic or something somewhere. So, Erc pushed the little old lady cart that'd we'd use to transport the groceries home. I liked trying to photograph her using it. Doesn't she look like she's well on her way to becoming a bag-lady? I kid. I heart her with my whole (holed, murmured) heart. She couldn't navigate it very well. Instead of helping right away, I let her struggle because I thought it was cute and funny. Mostly, I thought it was funny...

Erc and I bought some good sweets at Economy Candy. That place has nearly any type of candy you could ever imagine. One of the most laughable finds is pictured to the right. Oh man. Why'd they have to name it that? Didn't anyone at the pitch meeting think this might sound a little pornographic?

Also, Economy Candy was publicizing in their front display that they were good samaritans who helped out communities globally. HAHAHAHA Look at this dumb picture:

After the candy shop (read like 50 cent), Erc & I decided to skip the grocery story and go to the American Museum of Natural History to check out their exhibit Mythic Creatures. We were both way excited about & had been looking forward to it for awhile. Also, I had yet to go to the AMofNH (bad Tanya) & couldn't wait to see what they had.

The exhibit, itself, was fairly fun. Griffins, hydra, pegasii, dragons!, chupacabras! It was great. At the end, you could "build" your own dragon (on a computer screen). That made me happy. I just felt a little silly when moms would ask me if I was in line, or if I was done yet (I was picking my dragons characteristics with tremendous thought) and I had to say "Yes, I'm in line" or "Sorry, not done yet" in an unembarassed manner. God, I am lame.

What made me really happy, though, was the idea of going to find the dinosaur exhibits! I think I've said it before, but I will say it again, I love dinosaurs! I want to be one when I grow up. I know a lot about them; I took a class on them in college and paid extra types of attention. Yes, I am a nerd.

The museum was smart and split up the fossils (or casts of them really) into two separate exhibits: Ornithischian and Saurischian. These were the two types of dinosaurs. (Read in nerd voice: It has to do with a few skeletal differences, mostly with a forward pointing pubis bone - ask me later if you really care to know). We decided to stumble through the Ornithischian exhibit first.

Now, Ornithiscians are not my favorites, but they are still pretty cool. While the Whales were looking at some of the fossils, a peculiar looking man was spotted. He was wearing a little cargo vest and was explaining many facts and bits of trivia to some of the patrons in the exhibit. I was listening to him and noticed that his vest had a pin on it that said "Fossil Explainer." HAHAHAHA. Really? They couldn't come up with a better name for his job?

Anyway, he's a volunteer at the AMofNH. I told Erc that I wanted to be his best friend and that she needed to take a picture of him. I initiated conversation with our dear friend. He was extremely knowledgeable. As we spoke, he stopped me during one of my questions and said "You sure know a lot about dinosaurs." Is it sad that I was secretly happy? I'm so lame. However, the most important part is that Erca Whale took two phenomenal stalker pictures of us conversing. The second one is my favorite.

Check out this funny picture of Erca Whale with her hand making a fake duckbill. She's silly.

After we perused the Ornithischian exhibit, I nearly gallavanted to the Saurischian exhibit. I was really excited because the Saurischian Exhibit would house some of my favorite dinos. As Erca and I rounded the corner to enter, we noticed there was a security guard in front of it and a strange sign out front. It was the worst sign I could have seen that day. Below is a close-up of it.

F you, private party! How do I get into such a special event? Regardless, Erc and I were super bummed because we could see some of the fossils in the entryway and they were rad. We took crappy pictures (because they were fairly far away and the flash wasn't working that well). Look at the awesome shit we were missing out on!

The security guard walked away and was talking on the phone a bit. Erica said something like "Well, I guess that's it," and in a moment of heroics and dramatics I stated something like "That's not it; I'm going to take a picture of the T-Rex!" I kept anxiously waiting for people to scurry away before the security guard got back. Unfortunately, I'm sure we looked a little suspicious and he came back to check up on things.

I asked him if I could just cross the rope a little bit to take a picture of the T-Rex. He asked me if I had ever seen The Mummy. I nodded yes and he said "Well, you know those flesh-eating bugs that swarm over you in the movie, that's exactly what happens when you cross the velvet rope. It's a bacteria, actually. It lives in there, but never crosses this line." I was laughing hysterically because the whole time he was telling us this b.s., he was texting or whatever on his phone. I shook his hand and asked for a photograph together.

Erc and I stumbled into the taxidermy area. I dunno what it's called really. There I am posing like a gangstAR with the Impala diorama. Why do gangstas always want a '64 Impala?

Here are blurry/funny pictures of Erc posing with the baboons/gorilla. (I wish it were with Julia from our zoo visit).

I saw this diorama with this funny little creature and thought it was posed in a hysterical manner. I'm pretty sure Erc thought I was nuts when I made her snap a photo of me acting like it.

Don't you see the resemblance? Anyway, Erc and I got angered because all the exhibits we wanted to go to at that point were all either closed or inaccessible. So, I took this lame photo - which I didn't mean to look like I was trying to be "bad ass" or something. I was just very frustrated and we thought it was comical, as well.

After we left the museum, Erc wanted to walk through Central Park. I kind of didn't want to. I was really tired. We walked a little bit and then I sat on a bench (like a lazy fuck) while Erc tromped around the grounds. She returned in about 20 minutes and we took the subway back to my apartment.

We rested for a bit and then made our way back towards Central Park to attend one of the lovely Miss Ari's dinner/Office Parties. (Might I add, it's so nice to have someone throw "Office Parties" - viewings of the tv show The Office. I used to do it in Santa Barbara and I like carrying on the tradition somehow).

We had a good time and Erc was a good sport because I'm not even sure if she's really into The Office - or my friends here - but she came and all that jazz.

When we got back home Erca Whale and Tanya Beluga just stayed in and read books. It was nice. We had been doing a lot since Erica landed. So, it was nice to just chillax (hahahaha) and stay in.

More later, faithful readers!
The T