"CALL DA ZOO!"

My sister is probably the only one who might have possibly gotten the allusion to Billy Madison with the title of this blog post, but I find it quite fitting for mine and Derek's outting today. We went to the Atlanta zoo!! So here's a big thank you to Zoo Atlanta for being appreciative of educators and letting us in for free today; otherwise, there's no way we could ever afford to go.

So despite the torrential downpours that ominously loomed overhead during the early morning, my dear hubby and I woke up early on a Saturday morning (though I woke up an hour before my alarm went off... thank you, body, for getting used to waking up so freakin' early for school!). So we got ready and headed out the door to begin our day's journey... and we got about two miles down the road. Then we realized we forgot our educator ID badges, which we needed to get in for free. So we turned around and went back to the apartment. Derek went inside while I waited in the car to put my mascara on, of course. That's when I accidentally marked a huge line of mascara on the side of my face, so I had to trek back up to the apartment, too, to get my makeup remover. But not to fear, we had all we needed, so we set out. As we were pulling away, Derek announced, "Atlanta Zoo, take two!" And that's just about the time I forgot that I left my phone in the bathroom when I went up to the get the makeup remover. UGH! So we turn back around... AGAIN... and Derek runs upstairs once again to get my phone. And then off we went, "Atlanta Zoo, take three!" And then we were off... for real this time!!

During our hour drive out there, we listened to the Cedarville music group, HeartSong, which I would absolutely 100% recommend to anyone and everyone; it's so fabulous!! So we got to the zoo and circled the parking lot about 5 times before realizing we could park on the side of the street. I was actually pretty nervous that someone was going to think I was pretending to be a teacher. I joked with Derek that they would accuse me of stealing my mother's badge to try to get in, since I was just in shorts, a tshirt, and a ponytail; I probably looked like Derek was REALLY rocking the cradle (more than he already is, of course!). But thankfully nobody stopped me!

We made it to the first exhibit... the flamingos! I was so excited!! Not many people know this, but when I was in first grade I said I wanted to be a zoo keeper when I grew up. And for some reason whenever I get around live animals that should actually be in the wild (i.e. zoos, aquariums, Sea World, etc.), I absolutely turn back into a 5-year-old. As I'm sure Derek can attest, I practically pull him from exhibit to exhibit and just stare at the animals in a trance, not wanting to miss it when they do the super cool animal things... you know, like sleep, eat, or poop. I'm not really sure what I'm expecting to ever happen. Secretly I think I'm wishing for something extreme to happen, like a child falling into the gorilla cage and some mama gorilla taking care of it (if you've seen this clip on tv or youtube, you'll know exactly what I'm talking about). Or what if one of the animals started to give birth right then and there? Or what if the monkeys did something really funny or cute? Or what if the elephants started playing with the tires in their cage? I mean, there are just so many cool things that COULD happen. I'm always afraid I'm going to miss something like that!

So while Derek thought he was getting to go on a free date with his wife, he quickly realized that he was just getting a glimpse into the future of what it will be like when he has to bring our children to the zoo, but I guess that's okay since I've already succumbed to the idea of our children being Halo addicts by the age of two. Unfortunately none of those really cool things happened. There was actually a newborn female giraffe that I was SO excited to see, but of course the foreboding weather kept it from coming outside! HMPH!

While still at the flamingo exhibit, I realized that I had indeed brought my camera with me, which I thought I had left at my school!! YAY! I was now able to load my camera with a ton of animal pictures that I would later have no idea what to do with!! So as I take out my camera to get a picture of the flamingo flapping its wings in a really cool, unusual way, that's just about the time I realized that, while I remembered my camera, my memory card was still safely tucked away inside my computer at home! grrrrrrrrr....

After we strolled through the park (well, I say strolled, but that probably describes Derek more than me... I excitedly speed-walked in between exhibits and had to practice self control so that I wouldn't stand on the railings like all the other children trying to peer as far into the exhibits as possible to see all the animals), so after we strolled through the park, we got to go on a behind-the-scenes tour of the zoo and the kitchen where they prepare all the food. As educators, we got a $13 discount, so we only had to pay $5 to go on this spectacular, once-in-a-lifetime tour!! In reality, all that $5 got us was the chance to look at some frozen rats in packages in a kitchen that looked no more spectacular than the UGA dining hall kitchen, with which I'm very well acquainted from my past college job. Oh, and let's not forget that this tour gave Derek the chance to get on his soapbox about how stupid it is for them to "humanely" kill crickets and rats by suffocating them instead of just hitting them over the head or something, which of course I heard about for the entire rest of the zoo tour! But it was fine... when I turn into a 5-year-old, I can't be deterred from having fun!

On our way out of the zoo, we ran into four people leaving, as well. Two of them, a guy and girl, were literally screaming at each other about how it was stupid that he wanted to go sit inside where it was cooler, and apparently how that made him immature and he needed to grow up and be a man. He screamed back at her that she needed to get out of his business and how she wasn't his mother. Throw in the f-bomb about thirty or more times, along with every other choice word you can think of, and you will have a small glimpse into this mature, adult conversation we were lucky enough to witness. Oh, and I shouldn't forget to mention the fact that they were having this little squabble in front of both their own child in a stroller and all the other hundreds of children coming to enjoy a family outting at the zoo. Thank you, Atlanta-city dwellers.

So long story short, it ended up being a pretty good day. The rain held off, we got to get out by ourselves for a while (which was much needed after two weeks full of school stress), we got some free stuff, we got a semi-decent behind-the-scenes tour of some frozen rats for $5, and we were reminded of how blessed we are to not have yelling, cussing fights with one another. So a hearty thanks goes out to Zoo Atlanta for appreciating us for teaching everyone else's little chickabiddies. We welcome your support!! :-)

(Stay tuned for next Friday when we get to go to the Georgia Aquarium for free, too. I'll be sure to have a working camera next time!)