Zoos, Bowling, and Toasting the Lady who Lunched

I was going to share the following in a podcast, however my throat is a little sore and I wasn't up to talking for that long. So I'm going back to the old writing ways. All the fun of the story without my voice reading it for you.

It's been a very active week for me, and not in the whiny "I work all the time" way. I've actually been doing things for fun that also happen to take place outside the house (shocking, isn't it?). It's been an eventful week so let's get into it.

I freakin' love elephants.

On Sunday I spent my morning at the Pittsburgh Zoo. My cousin and her family (husband and three kids) came up to go to the zoo and invited me along. It was a fun time, mostly because I hadn't seen the kids in a while. They are getting big: one of them is nine, another is seven, and the baby is...I wanna say two. If it's not obvious, I don't see them that often. But I love 'em. They're getting into that fun age where they talk and say funny stuff. I mean babies are cute and all but I prefer little smartasses I can trade jokes with. Even the two-year old (I'm committing to two) cracks me up: when I got in the car I said to him "How you doin, Kabe?" and he blew a raspberry at me. Precious.

I'm really not a big "zoo" person. It's a fine time, don't get me wrong, but it's one of many things I think I'd enjoy more if there weren't so many people around. Now this isn't a general "crowd" issue because it never feels too overwhelming. It's more like you just know you're going to encounter a lot of people who walk too slow or crowd around you or say dumb things. For example when we were entering there was a sign that said "Giraffes not on display today." and I heard a man ask the girl at the gate "Why are the giraffes not out, they sick?" Yes, sir, they all have strep throat. It's pretty ugly.

A flamingo enjoying a soda...

I'm very torn on how I feel about zoos. On one hand it is nice to see these animals most people would never get the chance to otherwise. I personally could look at elephants for hours and there were a lot of very interesting looking fish in that big aquarium of theirs. But then I also wondered about how unpleasant the world must be for animals in zoos. They don't have the most space to run around in and most of them are quite far from their natural habitats. They spend every day walking around eating and shitting while group after group of people stand and point at them. We personally wouldn't like it as human beings, but who can say if the animals feel imprisoned or not? Maybe they're happy being somewhere where they get fed daily and don't have to worry about predators.

But you can argue moral problems with zoos in your own time (side note: fuck circuses). On Monday I went bowling with some co-workers and we had a great time. I enjoy bowling: it's one sport you can play if you're in no shape whatsoever and you don't have to touch anybody. Plus, there's drinking. Out of the four people on our lane I didn't do too bad. Ok I lost the first game and there was a three-way tie in the last game. But on the second game I came in second by one point, and I broke one hundred points for the first time to my knowledge (which is nothing to people who bowl regularly, but I was please). I'd like to go bowling more often than every three years or however long I wait. It's a good release: I like knocking things over.

My score is 113.

On Tuesday I saw a screening of the indie film Coherence, which star and Buffy alumni Nicholas Brednon attended and did a Q&A afterwards. It's my third time seeing him in person (we've been to a few cons here and there) and he was lovely as usual. I'll talk more about the film in a review I'll write later.

Wednesday I went to my first ever bar trivia night, once again with some coworkers and some new folks. I didn't have a whole lot to contribute. There were categories like "Country by last three letters of the name" and "20th century quotes" that I just didn't know anything in. One category was movies by the first screencap and I sucked at that one as well. I was beginning to think it wasn't my night, but then in round 2 there was the "TV shows by last line of their theme song" category, and I got us four points there easily. Luckily my team was full of intimidatingly smart trivia people so our group won (mostly because of them, but hey four points is four points.).

Then on Thursday the great Elaine Stritch died and that was sad. I went home after work and watched the fabulous documentary on her life Elaine Stritch: Shoot Me. It was a beautiful look at her life and I loved watching it and enjoy what little work of hers I've seen. I mostly know her from the show Company, but she also played Jack's mother on 30 Rock and Mary's mother on 3rd Rock from the Sun. She was a hilarious woman and she'll be missed.

So that was my week. Next weekend I'm going to a family reunion which will probably supply me with some good stories for y'all. I'll leave you with Stritch and the Ladies Who Lunch.