The Bronx zoo

Lynda called me at noon, waking me up. "Sorry for the late notice," she said. "Do you want to go to the Bronx zoo?" I asked her if I could call back in ten minutes, after I assessed whether it would be possible to get out of bed. "Sure, leave a message on my cell phone." I blinked and rolled onto the floor, then pulled myself up and walked to the bathroom, nauseous.

Last night I met Xiaoming at the Knitting Factory. We had gone to see The New Year, not realizing that two bands were opening. The room was freezing. We walked upstairs and found seats in a corner of the balcony. Mazarin played the first set; every song sounded the same. I dozed. Vietnam was louder, with some interesting lead guitar work, but a terrible lead singer who emobied the worst aspects of Jim Morrison's intoning and Bono's posturing. By the time The New Year crowded on stage (there were four guitarists, a bassist, and a drummer) it was nearing one o'clock. The sound was layered, but inadequately mixed; the vocals were mostly lost, and boomed. Still, they played well and it was fun hearing them.

On the way home I stopped at Hiroko's. Her birthday had just passed and she had closed her restaurant to celebrate with friends. Almost everyone had gone by the time I arrived; she was drunk. A few of her friends had remained, finishing off beers or napping on one of the couches. One of her friends remembered a cake she had brought, and set about decorating it with candles. Little mice made out of frosting dotted the edges. She said she had bought it in Korea town. It was delicious, light and refreshing.

When I climbed upstairs to my apartment it was nearing four. Unable to sleep I stayed up reading. Dawn had begun filtering through the windows by the time I turned in.

The zoo was well attended without being crowded. Time Warner was sponsoring the weekend for its employees and their guests, and we were the beneficiaries thanks to Lynda. We started in the African plains, making our way west to the Congo Gorilla forest (still one of my favorite attractions) before heading north to the zoo center. The sea lions were all in the water, swimming about and barking out to each other. Walking east we entered the Tiger Mountain exhibit, and I was surprised to find the tigers visibly walking around. When I had gone last year they could barely be seen hiding in the trees against the far wall.

On our way out we took the Bengali express, a two mile monorail passing through a number of Asian habitats. Behind the train we could see the pens in which the animals are kept as the tour guide pointed out animals ahead. A child in the car before us waved to the animals, saying bye bye as we passed from one habitat to the other.

We left as the zoo was closing. A man sold flavored ice by the exit and we each gave him a dollar for a cup of it. It was the perfect treat after an afternoon walking around the zoo. I'm still amazed at how improved it is from my first trip in high school, some fifteen years ago.

My new favorite animal is the tapir. Posted by eku at July 11, 2004 8:36 PM