i still don't like the fundemental principle of animals in cages, but that said...

This is a pictoral of my day today, a day at the Smithosian National Zoo on a school field trip with my five year old niece and her three year old sister and all their little buddies. I took a personal day and after my little mental break down last night, I needed it. I love children so much. I love to make them laugh and get down on their level and be so not grown up. It is the best part of my day when I see a child smile. And I instantly want to hug every child I see and I have to sometimes watch myself smiling insestantly as strange children with their parents. It's the not children I worry about because they are usually laughing at my funny faces, but I'm sure to a parent that is is quite odd to see a complete stranger interactering from a distance in a check out line with a child I will probably never talk to. Anyway, it's what I do.


Sometimes I wish my life were as simple
as a giraffe's being that when they are
hungry they just have to look up or
get knocked in the head by a tree.



This little elephant was just getting a drink.
I was hoping against hope that he would
use his long nose to spray water on his back
to get rid of all that dirt, but no luck. Still,
watching an elephant drink is at once
captivating and disgusting.



That would be a baby panda sleeping in a tree.
And that would be my favorite scene of the day
beside the conga line of five year olds that I started
while we chanted, "Cheetah, cheetah, cheetah!"