Last Friday (22nd) was hot. I mean, it was scorching. I left the house at 6.30am and even then it was stifling and oppressive. Timon and decided it was time to bite the bullet and buy an AC unit for the window. Best Buy had them for $129 plus tax and we would just cop the extra electricity bill when the time came. There are just some luxuries in life that are worth the extra expenditure - wine, food and relief from a raging inferno. The window fan we had just wasn't cutting it and besides, we have 5 extra fur-covered bodies to take care of! Anyway, enough justification, the AC is a revelation. I know the newspaper recommends going no lower than 78 degrees to conserve energy and help the city avoid a blackout BUT 60 degrees is like an ice-box heaven!
On Saturday I worked in the morning and had my first volunteer shift at the Museum of the Moving Image that night. I'd worked it out so I could minimise my travel time by going there straight from Jack's. The trip to Queens is about an hour form our apartment but only 15 or so minutes from midtown. Or so I thought. What I'd neglected to do was check the MTA website for service disruptions on the subway. I left work in plenty of time with the intention of perusing the museum before starting my shift. I walked in the sweltering heat to 59th Street (from 51st) to jump on the R train. I made my way down the stairs and through the twisting tunnels of the station to find that the R train platform was inexplicably roped off. No signs. Just ropes. So back up to the street I went. I checked my map and thought to try 60th Street and 5th Avenue. Down the stairs.....and signs everywhere saying no trains at this station. At all. Back to the street I go. By this time I am supremely grouchy and hot and red and sweaty. I ended up walking down 5th Avenue and across to 7th to find the nearest train that would take me somewhere in the vicinity of the museum. An hour and 15 minutes later! I had been into the bowels of Queens and back and finally made it to MOMI. Where instead of walking around the museum I sat in the air conditioned cafe and recovered.
I was gifted a 'Volunteer MOMI' t-shirt and sent up to the top floor to man the entrance to the new Jim Henson exhibition. It was my responsibility to tear tickets, turn people away if they'd arrived to early for their timeslot and remind people that no photos were allowed. Pretty cruisey stuff but also very boring stuff. I was abandoned by anyone resembling an employee so kept myself entertained by watching clips from the Muppets and Sesame Street projected on the wall. When the crowd dwindled I took it upon myself to leave my perch and explore the Henson exhibit and was thrilled to find the original Bert and Ernie puppets. They had also secured Kermit, Miss Piggy, Rowlf and a Fraggle - not to mention some cool costumes from The Dark Crystal and storyboards from The Labyrinth. As a volunteer I was given a free membership for the year which includes film screenings. I'm looking forward to taking Timon there to check out the whole museum. I spied some pretty awesome props in one gallery - the spinning head Exorcist dummy and a terrifying Freddy Krueger rubber chest (from when all the faces protrude trying to escape his tummy). I think the whole volunteering thing will be super boring but the payoffs are pretty cool!
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