Trying to get upstairs in old NYU dorm...IDs are checked - I have mine miraculously. Young female security guard asks entering group for anyone's personal belongings so she can look through them while at her desk and not be bored.
Walking up flights of stairs with group, only to find at one particular landing that the next stairwell doesn't go up, it goes back down. We go back down to find another smaller stairwell going up across the room.
Up to a large space where the center of the huge space is a cavity that allows you to look down and see lower floors. No one wants to go near the edge and look down except for me. Two unidentified people and I check out a side room. There is a huge window; looking out we see a young Elvis Costello out on the balcony. Later I look through some smaller windows to find out that through these particular windows, it is dark out, while at the larger one it is daylight. The room itself is filled with every great old toy and some imagined ones all in pristine condition. Apparently this is the prized archive of a man who died, possibly Mingus. Two people with me are eager to leave room and move on to check out other rooms, but I "break tradition" and decide quite joyously to stay in this room for a while to study the treasures.
