Working at the Zoo

I've been working at the zoo this summer and its been fun. It is a nice way to get off of the university campus and fresh air. Today was a free day at the zoo (for everyone under 11) and so everyone brought their kids, their kids friends, and their kids friends friends. It was crazy and it will only get more crazy this week. I was very flattered that people thought I could magically call the animals out of their hiding spots or make them do tricks. However, it was also annoying to have them ask me why I couldn't do it when it didn't work. I spent most of the afternoon being told, "No" or some variation thereof, while watching the Tapir (a really cool pachyderm) in his watering hole. We said if we got 30 rejections between the three of us working at one spot then we'd get to ride the carousel. I got 20 rejections myself and we decided to not ride the carousel because of all the screaming children. I got to watch the hippos for 20 minutes instead. The full size hippo is named Wicked and she's just cool. I mean she hangs out in the water and comes up for air every 6 minutes. It is strangely fascinating for me to stand on the fence and just watch the water waiting for her to come up for air. Next door to Wicked is Obessa, the pygmy hippo. Obessa was in her mud today. She was just laying there. At first it was difficult to tell where she was, but then it was easy. I was jealous, though both hippos had people yelling at them to do things too. Though if I weight 700 lbs or even 7k lbs and someone yelled at me I'd probably do something to scare them into no longer yelling. I wish I could take my camera around the zoo with me, but I'd probably lose it and then be disoriented in the world when I had no more camera.

We're coming up on the Fourth of July here in Chicago. There are firework displays planned for Chicago or over the lake, but we plan on going to none of them. They are INSANELY crowded and we just want to not deal with that many people for a while. Summer school is still keeping Chris busy.

Other than that there isn't much new this week. Its been a week of working and the craziness that goes with that. Hope everything is going well for everyone else.