museums and parrots

I don't want to bore you with all of The Adventures In Family Land, so here are some highlights from Sunday:

We went to the Met(ropolitan Museum of Art). This is one of them big museums they's got in the city. They have paintings, sculpture, armor, weapons, clothing, and all sorts of ancient relics. One of the temporary exhibits right now is a Raphael display. For those of you not hip to the art world know, Raphael was a 16th century artist. Because he was Renaissaince-era, much of his work had a religious theme, often focusing on Mary and the Christ Child.

It wasn't a posted rule, but most people were speaking nary above a whisper while looking at these pieces. Into the room march two old ladies, using their outside voices to say the following:
"I don't really like all this religious stuff. What's with that fat baby all the time?"
And various other not-so-secret exclamations of disgust.

Now, I'm no religious zealot, but I can appreciate art. Especially art that is 500 years old. I politely (and quietly) commented on how these "ladies" were clearly in the wrong place. If they don't like "all this religious stuff" what are they doing looking at an exhibit that is centered around an altarpiece done by this guy?

Eventually we wandered purposefully away from these disruptors. Of course, we would hear other people in other parts of the museum saying things like "What the heck is that thing?" which they could easily answer themselves by reading the helpful little card displayed in the direct vicinity of every single thing. But people don't read. You know that.

After the Met, we walked around Central Park. Even though the fam was a little against any sort of self-propelling activity, they couldn't complain about this because the Met is inside the park. We found a nice bench not too far away and they sat there while Craig & I sat in the grass. Near us was a guy with his two parrots. The parrots were frolicking in the trees (yes, parrots frolic); one was high up across the path and the other was a few feet away from us. Eventually Otis, as that was the closer parrot's name, came creeping on the ground towards us. Parrot Guy didn't seem to care, so neither did we.



Eventually, Otis made it over to Craig and climbed right up on his leg. Parrot Guy came over and assured us that Otis would not be biting or hurting, and if we were cool with it he would climb around a bit. So we let him. Parrot Guy told Otis to say hello, and Otis did while waving with a claw. That was incredibly cute. Craig tried to get Otis to repeat the trick, but it took a few tries. Then Otis clambored over to me. I said hello, just as a greeting, and Otis repeated it to me. First try, suckers!

Eventually it was dinnertime so we ushered Otis back to the tree he was in before discovering our laps, and were on our merry way. It was a shame to leave our new friend, but it would be more of a shame to not eat dinner.