Garny's New York

On Thursday October 27th, my friends and I visited the Rubin Museum of Art. It was a rainy day but we decided to walk since the subways would have got us there in the same amount of time. We got to the museum and quickly got lost and security had to direct us to the ticket admissions desk (it was a small museum). The person at the desk informed us that the CUNY free admissions program was ending shortly so we fortunate to take advantage of the savings before it was over. The museum was filled with Tibetan art and Buddhist culture. There were sculptures of Buddhist gods and goddesses. What really fascinated me about the art was the complexity of the culture and the understanding of the human body so early in history. My favorite piece of art in the museum was the clay sculpture of Yellow Jambhala which was quite detailed. The sculpture was of a yellow human like figure with a large crown atop his head. He had large eyes and stared with a very menacing glare. He holds a mongoose in one hand and in the other hand he holds fruit shaped gems. Yellow Jambhala is the god of wealth and I thought the sculpture was interesting because of how detailed and exciting it was to look at. Looking at the sculpture makes me feel like the figure would animate and start attacking me because of how menacing it looks. Another interesting thing about the sculpture is the purpose of it being built in the first place. Why would humans create this image to worship? The idea that this would somehow bring them more wealth and fortune is something hard for me to wrap my head around. How could it be that worshipping this deity bring about more wealth? I have to assume that in someway worshipping the god of wealth has brought about some form of positive energy to the ones who practice it, for it is still part of many peoples lives today.

I was on my way home and was transferring to the LIRR at Barclay’s Center and saw what I’ve never seen before. Usually I transfer to the LIRR and I see the usual flood of commuters and I get my ticket and go on my way. It was a Friday night when for the first time I witnessed a flood of hockey fanatics invade the station. These fans were prepping to watch their Long Island Islanders perform on the Barclay’s ice. These fans were decked out in their best Islanders jerseys, which created such a vibrant and colorful scene of orange and blue. There are beer stands in the station that I have never seen before, the station is buzzing with anticipation and excitement. As I waited to pay for my ticket and watched the sea of blue,white and orange pour into the station and continue up the stairs, I couldn’t help but wonder what is it that makes these people want to travel a long way to watch something they could watch at home? It quickly came to my attention that there was a certain type of excitement that couldn’t be reached sitting on the couch. The coming together of people you’ve never met before to watch your favorite hockey players battle right before your eyes, score a game winning goal, and to hear the thousands of people roar in excitement and appreciation,  it must be electric. I’ve never been to a grand scale sporting event but I can understand why people take part in such entertainment because it’s almost unmatched by anything else on earth.

A common preconception of New Yorkers is that they are rude, self-interested, misanthropes.  Well, most of the time this isn’t false. However, on this particular occasion I found that maybe there are New Yorkers that aren’t cut-throat and ruthless.

I had just finished an intense workout on my arms and I didn’t have any lunch, which was a big mistake. As I walked into the locker room, all sweaty with my arms pulsating and throbbing, barely breathing, I sat on the locker room bench to catch my breath. I sat there light headed and absolutely enervated wanting to grab a pillow, cut the lights out, stretch my legs and take a long nap right in the middle of the locker room floor. My friend, luckily for me, snatched me up from the fantasy that I was slowly drifting into. I dragged myself over to the rental locker and remembered that I had a protein powder ready to make a shake. I then woke myself up and began to put a sense of urgency in getting dressed. I got my protein shake ready and took a sip to get some kind of energy into my body. My friend I go to get some food at a restaurant I’ve never heard of before, he tells me it’s like a Chipotle. I’m on the brink of passing out so I’m willing to eat anything. We walk down Park Ave to meet the famous Dos Toros Taqueria that he was talking about. I was greeted by a large sign with a rustic background and Dos Toros glowing in fiery red. I walk in and my friend begins to order spitting out “Dos Toros” lingo, “bowl, guac, beans…”. I’m next and I point at what I want as if I can’t speak English. I get my food walk up to the register and get ready to pay. The lady asks me what did I get and I point at it and say “that”. She punches in the numbers and tells me “$10.86”. I pull out my debit card to pay for my food, like I always do, and she swipes it. Out of nowhere I hear someone scream “IT DECLINED”.

I’m clearly disoriented at this point as if someone threw a flashbang into the restaurant. I get to my senses and reach  for my phone to check my finances and realized that I lost my debit card earlier that day and locked it so that no one could swipe it and take advantage of my hard earned $72. Before I could explain the debacle of my life to the cashier lady she hands me a receipt reading $0.00 and says “it’s okay”. I couldn’t have been more grateful to this women who let me sit in this well established restaurant and eat their food for free. This women is clearly the needle in the haystack. She could have easily kicked me out, taken the food, and sold it to the next customer but instead she decided to let a poor, hungry college kid get some free food.

However like I stated before, a common preconception of New Yorkers is that they are rude, self-interested misanthropes and most of the time this isn’t false and I am a living testament of this statement as I didn’t even take the time to get this very generous lady’s name.