This post is part of my NYC with Amber guide

The Metropolitan Museum of Art | 1000 Fifth Avenue (at 82nd Street) | Manhattan

On Tuesday, a friend texted me at 7:30 in the morning unable to face work for the day. It was sentiment I shared, given the current, um, disheveled state of my studio, so we blew everything off and played hooky at Metropolitan Museum of Art.

When people visit New York, there are very few touristy things I recommend they do (I promise that Times Square is overrated) but this is worth visiting. Get there early on a weekday to avoid the maddening glut of noisy tourists “getting culture” on the weekend and ruining the experience, and get a map, too. The place is huge.

When I was in Paris last year, Emily and I had a gentleman buy us a bottle of wine (he was trying to sleep with her, or possibly us, but that wasn’t going to happen. Still, we felt sassy and cosmopolitan anyway having wine close to midnight with our thickly-accented Parisian companion.) He was an art professor, and mentioned things in the Louvre that he would keep if allowed to go in and take anything he wanted.

I decided my “I’d steal this” piece at the Met is Cypresses by van Gogh. He painted it while he was in an a voluntary asylum stay in his last year of life. I loved looking very close at the thick, wavy lines, imagining that they were soothing to paint. Art as comfort is something I can relate to.

P.S. A tip on getting there, especially in a cab: Don’t confuse “The Met” with “the MoMa” (the Museum of Modern Art), which is a whole other (wonderful) museum in a whole other (totally different) part of Manhattan. I have known no fewer than 3 separate visiting friends who have made this mistake. Have fun!