If I ran the zoo

We went to the zoo today. It was one of those almost spur of the moment things that basically sums me up. I work better under pressure. I had told the kids over the weekend since it was a big waste of time to go to the silly seminar four hours away since it wasn't that great a time, we'd go to the zoo to make it up to them. When a seven year old tells you it was the worst time of their lives, even though it's only a fraction of your lifetime, you have to take that to mean something. Besides, I needed to be made up to, too.

So, after a crazy morning wherein Emmy decided she couldn't wait for me to finish inserting my contact and got a chair, an orange from the fridge and a steak knife, and gave a new meaning to the term "blood orange" all in about 90 seconds, I decided, after the bleeding stopped and we mopped it up off the walls, stairs, door, sink and our persons, we'd give ourselves a treat and go to the zoo today instead of waiting till tomorrow like I had sort of planned.

After basic first aid and trying not to toss my cookies, we packed up our personal zoo and headed out to the more organized (and more expensive) one. Four hours at the zoo (with a jolt of Starbucks) helps mop away those crappy days. It had been a long time since we had been and even though we had to fight through a few arguments mostly with a cranky toddler, it's really nice to just check out animals that have nothing better to do than be zoo eye candy.

Most of the animals aren't farm worthy though and that's okay, even if my brain quickly skips over a contemplation of what it'd be like. A lot of my thoughts immediately turn to that nowadays though. I suppose it's all part of the changes I wrote about before. I look at animals now with a different sense of purpose.

I think my favorite part was the kids section of the zoo which is about as close to a farm as I can get right now. The myriad of petable, feedable goats was a great treat and as I blurted out to Rob once, I just can't wait to get my hands on a goat of my own (you know what I mean). The two little girls rode the ponies. Emmy is so proud to be big enough now and it proved a great distraction from "the finger boo-boo". And I had to ride a camel (so Emmy could) which is not something I ever want to do again. A ride on a camel I can best describe as being only somewhat strapped to a huge drunken sheep on stilts. Elsie the llama was out for a stroll giving the kids their first taste of petting one. I might have to reconsider our livestock choices after being flirted with by that beautiful dame.*

A nice time was had all around and inserted a positive memory in place of the hellish weekend we endured. But that weekend's over and we're moving on and now healing too.

*Llama flirting seems to consist of being nudged for food while getting looks of mild contempt. It's a beautiful thing to the certain kind of person.