If you're visiting the National Zoo the best exhibit area by far is the Amazonia building. Yes, the pandas get all the glory with their bamboo gorging and adorable hijinx, but when it comes to badassery, Amazonia can kick Tai Shan's ass to China and back.
Saturday was just another typical day at the zoo. I was on a mission to take photos with my new camera. Lots of photos. Got some shots of pandas playing, elephants standing around looking bored, the seals being seal-like. Finally found myself in Amazonia where I captured some rocking shots of the fishes and turtles doing their thing. It was truly a splendid day at the zoo and I finally felt like I was putting my disgustingly expensive new camera to good use. After deciding that 40 images of fish swimming around in greeny-blue water was enough, I ventured upstairs to their mini-rain forest to get a glimpse of the aquatic life from a different angle. I was leaning over the railing trying to assess the photogenicness of the specimens in the tank below me when out of the bottom of my vision I saw something fall. Closer inspection revealed that the object being taken by gravity away from me to the tank below was in fact, my sunglasses. My ridiculously frivolous, purchased at Nordstrom's, gift to myself for my 30th birthday, that fit my face perfectly, that make strangers do a double take because they make me *that* badass and mysterious, that my former work paramour has dubbed my "Paris Hilton shades", that I have managed to own for a record 9 months without losing. Those sunglasses.
Not content to give them up forever, I decided to hunt down a nice Friend of the Zoo to see if there was some way I could get them back.
Several inquiries hooked me up with a charming young lady named Isabelle, who escorted me to the building's administrative offices. She introduced me to Justin, who with his air of authority, take charge-i-tude and slight exasperation, was clearly running most of the show. In a tone that mixed assertiveness with graciousness and a dash of silly-me irreverence, I told him what had just happened. I let him know that I didn't need my shades back immediately, just whenever it was convenient for them, that I could easily wait, it wasn't important so long as I got them back eventually, and that I could simply leave my number and they could call me whenever they managed to retrieve them. Due to either his impeccable attention to customer service, or his simple desire to get me out of his office, Justin said he could help me out. After returning to the spot where I dropped my glasses, and pointing them out to him in the waters below, Justin left for a moment and returned a few minutes later with a very long plastic pole attached to a mesh basket. After a bit of fumbling with the pole (tee), Justin was able to extract my shades from the water. By that point a crowd of twenty or so snickering onlookers had gathered to watch (seriously folks, not that interesting, move along). Justin handed the shades to me with a flourish. I was half expecting a round of applause to break out from the crowd. Instead people just looked at me as to confirm what they knew all along, that the woman standing out-of-the-way yet within reach of the tank looking sheepish was indeed the moron who lost her glasses. Taking my glasses from Justin I waved them at the crowd and did a little curtsy, vowing to advocate raises for the nice zoo employees.
In other news, 47's ex is back in town and there's a sizable amount of drama. Amazingly though, it's only between them. Things with him and me remain excellent. Last night he came over with and set up an impressive spread of things to drink and two packages of fine chocolate. In fact, I daresay that his ex returning has only brought us closer.
More later. If you're good, I may post some of my zoo pics. I'm having issues with the sizing. Size after all, is tremendously important.
Recent Comments