Okay, so it's been months that I've been kicking this blog around in my head--since I was in St. Louis.
As I do everytime I go back to St. Louis, I went to the zoo practically every other day. And I had a couple things happen on different days that I thought I'd throw out there and see what you think is normal or okay or just plain silly:
Story One: I was walking through the zoo, I believe we just spent an hour in the museum at the children's zoo watching meerkats and naked mole rats and provoking a sleeping bat when I saw a crowd gathering behind the stage where they put on the animal shows. Always interested in what's going on, I joined to crowd and followed their pointing fingers. Here up in the grass were two kittens playing. No, they weren't cheetah or lion kittens. They were domesticated kittens like you can see anytime you drive down a street in anytown USA. Kittens. I shook my head and walked away, and I wanted (but didn't) to say, "We're at the zoo. There are zebras, giraffes, hippos, and you're wasting your time on kittens?"
Story Two: I was at the zoo with my childhood (and adulthood) friend Hilary and her two boys when we decided to stop for lunch. It was kind of a rainy afternoon, so we decided to eat under the covered area near the restaurant. The zoo is always full of squirrels and chipmunks and peacocks and turkeys wandering loose on the sidewalks. I accept them. They're cute. I do occasionally point them out to Bianca. But as we were coming closer to the food area, a rodent darted out in front of us on the sidewalk. This wasn't just any rodent. It was a very large rat. I screamed. A zoo worker was right next to me and I shouted, "There's a rat." Hilary rolled her eyes and said, "We're at the zoo, Jeana." But it was a rat, not in a cage as animals are supposed to be at the zoo. It was running free, growing fat on the food in the food court. Ugh.
Just curious, what are your thoughts? Okay or not--considering our location, the zoo.
