MoMA and The Metropolitan Opera

We're leaving the city behind in a matter of weeks, and I decided to double up on my New York outings by throwing some weekends into the mix. So it came to pass that we recently spent a Friday evening at MoMA, and Saturday night at the opera.

The two outings exemplified my split NY/NJ lifestyle. We visited MoMA on one of their Free Friday nights- I spent an extra day in the city and Dan and I went early, and met up with some friends for dinner afterwards. The opera was more of a trip by suburbanites- after a Saturday at the office, we drove our NJ friends into the city and "did" dinner and an opera.

I loved them both: they were wonderful. But trying too, each in its own way.

Our Saturday night at the opera went without a hitch. Dinner was lively, we ate too much, Dan drank too much, and we all laughed out loud. The opera itself was lush, delightful- the singing strong and lovely, the scenery clever. We were last-minute surprised to have the lead soprano replaced by her understudy, but none of us had ever heard the opera before and she was good.

The trip was taxing: rushing out of work early, meeting up at a local hotel so we could carpool together, racing in to beat the traffic (which we did!), parking downtown at the apartment, then taking a looooong and crowded subway ride to midtown. The opera was three hours long. We were pooped- and still needed to ride back downtown to the car, drive out to the NJ hotel, where we dispersed and drive ourselves the rest of the way home. All in separate cars.

Our trip to MoMA was theoretically easier, since we were already in New York. But somehow it was exhausting too. I loved the easy (and free!) entry, didn't mind the crowds (the people-watching was terrific), and we enjoyed ourselves for 45 minutes before deciding we had seen enough for one day. No muss, no fuss. But as we walked and walked (I was hungry, and my nose ran like a faucet!) in the damp and chill, zig-zagging in and out of the tourists all through midtown, Mike and Dan went back and forth on the restaurant three times by text before we actually, finally met for dinner. I was cranky at that point, and fought first with Dan (privately), then with my inner self- trying to keep my cool in front of our friends. I did, and we had a great time in the end. But it reminded me how hard the city can be, and how uncomfortable at times.