One of NYC’s all-time great places is The American Museum of Natural History. Quinn* calls it The Museum of The Oldest and Largest Things Ever That We Know About and Can Fit Inside A Building.

It is a place that can make a person feel small. Think how it makes a stitch face feel.

Quinn likes having her mind boggled, that’s why she goes to the AMNH.

She’s particularly fond of Glyptodon. She can’t quite believe that he ever lived. You can’t make these things up!  And she’s sad that there are no longer giant armadillos.

On the other hand, Buettneria makes her a little nervous. Quinn appreciates that The Museum has placed these fossils in the brightest, sunniest halls.

Feeling vulnerable, Quinn heads to the Rose Center for Earth and Space. She calls it the Rose Center for Everything in the Entire Universe.

She tries very hard, but even with her boots on she still weighs 0.000 pounds on Saturn.

However, just when she’s about to be overwhelmed by her own insignificance and the incomprehensibility of it all (the bigness, the extinct-ness, the unknowability), this happens:

Mind-boggling in a different way.

Quinn is made from one of my husband’s old ties. I was afraid she might be a little too metallic, that she might look too AI. She’s a little shiny, but I think she’s ok. Her sweater dress is cut from an old sweater and bordered with some old pajama pants bottoms. Her scarf is from an old shirt, and her boots from a fabric sample from my friend Anne.

Not all dreams are great big dreams
Some people’s dreams are small 
Not all dreams have to have a golden fleece
Or any kind of fleece at all

—from “Simple Little Things,” from “110 in the Shade”

*Quinn was given the name Quinn three weeks ago, so it is entirely coincidental that the winter storm headed our way shares her name.