Tonight we wandered through the underbelly of the National Museum of Natural History. We were delivering flowers for the opening of a new exhibit "Against all Odds: Rescue At The Chilean Mine". The museum will be displaying the rescue capsule, video footage and mementos from the miners.
Our passage was not nearly as harrowing. However, 6 trips in 2 different freight elevators, maneuvering carts filled with towering arrangements through miles of tourists and lifting these heavy vessels onto buffet tables, was fraught with enough danger and suspense for my taste.
There was the ever present elephant standing guard in the rotunda and, for some reason, a strange, blinding yellow light above us. People were being herded out of the museum and servers were whirling in. Gwen, tres chic in a black sheath and silvery stilettos, had organized every plate, table cloth, bottle of wine, bite of delicious food and of course the flowers. The guests numbered 630 and this was no easy task. There were invitations, menus and programs to be printed and VIP's ego's to assuage. Our instructions were clear and simple: BIG and beautiful, with a few stems of green cymbidium orchids.
After last minute fiddling with the flowers, adding a leaf here and a stem of Hawaiian ginger there I turned my camera into the light and shot a few pictures.
This done we walked back through the paleozoic era and disappeared once again into the bowels of the museum accompanied by much clanging of the freight elevators gates.
Your bleary eyed reporter will now go tumble into bed.
