After spending a fun Memorial day with my friend Bonnie, I got up on Tuesday to do some exploring on my own. Since Bonnie had to work, I made plans to visit New York City’s Metropolitan Museum of Art, an incredible and expansive gallery open to the public.
Meanwhile, I also made plans to meet up with another old (but young) childhood friend who was living in NYC. Well, really, maybe I should just call her my younger sister. You see, Anna and her family lived in Russia at the same time we did, and our families ended up becoming good friends. Besides hanging out on a regular basis (going to the same school, having cookouts in the forest, playing at each others’ apartment), we invariably spent every Thanksgiving and Christmas with them, because when you’re far away from your real family, your friends are your family. And since Martha (my sister) and I were a few years older, Anna became our little sister. I think the last time I had seen her, though, was at my wedding nearly five years ago. Since then, she had already gone to and graduated from college (go Anna!), so I couldn’t wait to catch up.
But first, the subway ride to the Met.
Self-portrait #1.
Self-portrait #2
One of my favorite things in the museum.
Self-portrait #3
“The show is not the show but they that go.”
Girl admires a painting by my favorite artist, Marc Chagall. (On a side note, I’d really love to do a series of wedding portraits styled after his work…it’s so romantic).
My little sister Anna laughing after we “consumed our victuals” of frozen yogurt. Long story behind the terms…
Central Park on a cloudy and overcast muggy day.
In the evening, Bonnie and I went out for an ice cream adventure in Brooklyn (yeah, ice cream and frozen yogurt were becoming daily staples).
And just like that, the trip was over! It was so fun and so worth it, though, to catch up with old friends.
And from the archives…this first one was taken fall 1993 in a park in Moscow. Left to right, Martha, Anna, me.
Couple years later…Christmas 1995? Left to right: Anna’s brother, Martha, Me, and Anna blinking in front.
Winter in Russia after a day of sledding. Left to right: Me, Anna (bundled up sitting down), Martha, Nick (a Russian family friend, also a driver for us–most Americans didn’t own cars…so we’d share drivers when we needed to get somewhere by car), Anna’s brother, and a friend of his. Ha, I love how you can barely see Anna in her hood…and Martha’s glove makes her hand look huge. We were stylin’ in our purple and teal jackets.
Still a few more years later, 1997? The three older boys were from another family who we were also good friends with. The little kid is my brother Albert–who is actually coming to visit me tomorrow in Pittsburgh! Gotta love the bangs and floral prints Anna and I are wearing. Hey, we were living in a foreign country, what can I say?
Yay for memories…and now proof to the world that I was never cool growing up.
by mary
Christina Montemurro - Mary, these are great! I love the light in the photo of the dog and the expression you captured there. And the muggy Central Park photo is so nicely composed with the lake and the skyline.
But I cannot stop laughing because of my own reading error. Somehow I got myself messed up and thought that the caption “Girl admires a painting by my favorite artist, Marc Chagall” went with the photo above it. Where the woman is looking at a mostly blank wall. And I was thinking, “oh, I see, it must be one of these really abstract romantic things? How is Mary going to do a shoot like this?” ha
marfa - I especially love the one with Albert. That grin makes me think of Liam!
Milla - Mary… I love your NYC pictures. But really, I LOVE your childhood pictures! You were SUCH a cute cute kid… I love the first picture especially.