Paint and peacocks
Things overheard this weekend:"Can we hold on this conversation? I have to put the elephants out."
"Attention all staff: The tigers have been exchanged. Repeat: The tigers have been exchanged. Craig, do you copy?" (followed by minutes of uncomfortable silence while everyone wonders if Craig is still unmauled) "uhh, sorry. Craig here. Monkey issue. I copy."
"He's cute and all, and I would totally do him, but I wouldn't ever bring him around my friends. He can't talk right and is kinda stupid. But maaaan, cute."
"So she calls an hour before my wedding and then doesn't even show up. I'm like, "MOM!" She's so frustrating sometimes."
"Hey, did that peacock just pee on that guy?"
Zoos are fascinating places, even more so when you're there for 10 hours (2 hours before they open till after they close) and you're essentially invisible, hidden up a ladder along one of the major pathways. Hyena laughter is EERIE. The zoo I was working at is filled with peacocks that mingle with visitors, maintaining a delicate balance between tolerance and aggression and occasionally, if reports are to be believed, peeing on the more obnoxious passers-by. One of them adopted me, checking up on me every once and a while over my two days of work and attempting to eat my paint when I wasn't looking. It was sweet. I named him Kyle, since every Kyle I've known has been pretty and dim and probably at some point ate paint.
(pause as J double-checks that none on her friends is named Kyle)
The zoo folks were very kind and made sure that I was completely roped off from the visitors, which led to a "don't feed the painter" feel that I kind of liked. Most of the kids were polite, with the conversation consisting of (Kid)"What's she doing?" (Parent)"Why don't you ask her?" (Kid)"What you doing?" (Me)"Painting" (Kid)"Oh." There were a few budding artists who then added "Heh, I could do that." but for the most part they were content with the basics.
My favorite was one unfortunate southern kid with a drawl who complimented me with "That's some durn good art." Kids are funny.
Then there were the parents. Let's just say that my faith in human decency has taken a bit of a dip in the past couple of days. Also my faith in people's abililty to pronounce "theater".
Here's the schtuff:
uh, LadyJay(tm) and all that
posted by LadyJay @ 11:06 AM
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