Eventually....The Zoo

I was so looking forward to spending today with DollFace at the zoo. Unfortunately, this morning when I tried to call her dumbass flaky selfish mother, it went straight to voice mail. When I finally got hold of E he said that C had spent the night at her sisters. In the past, this has been code for "too drunk to drive herself home". And DollFace was with her. E would try to get in touch with her via the sister. GRRR!! I was very hurt and pissed off. Once again Aunt Paige is treated as though her plans are unimportant and she has no life so she can just wait around for stupid C to get her act together.

I have to interrupt myself here and say that I was so hurt. I really felt like binging. But I sat with the feelings. I ate a normal breakfast. I curled up in a ball for a while and pouted. But I did not binge. Eventually, I was able to force myself into action rather than eating. Although emotionally, this is a pretty minor incident, I am proud of that. One small step for fatkind.

Well, after about two hours, C gets around to calling me and leaves a message (I was still too busy being angry and pouting to talk to her). The message does not sound in the least bit regretful. It was actually quite snippy and full of excuses. And ended with saying that if I still wanted to take DollFace to the zoo it was open till 9pm and I should call her but otherwise she was going to daycare.

GRRR! I argued and argued with myself. Parking would be a nightmare by now, it was the hottest part of the day. Why should I let on that I'm sitting around waiting for C to throw me a freaking bone.

But why should DollFace miss out on something I've been promising her because of her mother's idiocy? Why should I miss out on time with DollFace? I kept coming back to that. Many afternoons when I picked DollFace up from school she would ask if we could go to the zoo. I didn't want to let her down so I called. C was still full of excuses but was actually very apologetic on the phone. Ok but it's still not excusable and not enough. This happens time and time again and I'm not sure how to change that.

Driving there was horrific with lots of construction delays, parking was indeed a nightmare. Thank God, it was a little cooler today and walking around wasn't so bad. Many animals were out and moving around and I think DollFace had a good time. We especially liked seeing the tigers twitching their ears and the hippos were very active swimming in their see through tank and interesting to watch. There was an absolutely beautiful peacock walking around loose. It was feeding time at the monkey house which was an unusual thing to see. I was surprised that DollFace really loved the reptile house. Ugh. We must have seen every snake, lizard and frog three times. I didn't know she liked that sort of thing.

It reminded me of the time I took Stretch to the zoo when she was about this age. She liked the reptile house too. While there she found a snake she really liked and stood by the cage, joyously announcing to everyone who passed, "SEE THAT 'NAKE IN THERE?!" I couldn't get her away from that special snake for about 15 minutes. Guess love of snakes runs in the family...NOT in my genes though.

Outside the reptile house is a brass turtle with it's mouth open so you can throw coins in as donations. When we got to it, I told DollFace not to put her fingers inside the mouth or it might bite. Of course she had to do it, and while she did, I pinched her from behind and made her flinch. I've done this with many students and Stretch and it's always funny to me and to them. But not for DollFace. She started crying! I guess she's a little too young for that trick. I eventually calmed her down and as you can see she made friends with the turtle.

Unfortunately, the zoo closes at 5pm, NOT 9, as someone had suggested. I was planning to stay there at least until after rush hour so driving home sucked crapass. But we saw a lot of animals and had a good time together. We have a list to see the next time when we take Stretch (who is visiting cousins in Memphis). Penguins, bunnies, stingrays and seals will have to wait for our next visit.



Of course I had to visit these guys while I was at the zoo.



The storks!



I threw a few fertile thoughts skyward as we looked at them.



I start acupuncture tomorrow.