My mom came down to visit this weekend, and it was great. My grandpa and Shaun came down too, and on Friday night we all went out to eat at Quaker Steak and whatever it is called with Kevin, my Uncle Ralph, and Aunt Mary. Kevin was hilarious. He was flirting with the gross waitress, it was so funny. She would come by to drop off a beer, and would rub his ear between her fingers as she left. It was so gross and funny at the same time. I've never eaten at that place before, but they bring out these warmed up napkins in these little bags. Kevin hadn't taken a shower because he had just gotten off work, so he was taking the napkins out, washing his face with them, his hair, sticking them up his shirt and pretending to wash his armpits. I couldn't take it.
On Saturday my mom and I met up with Heidi, Kane, Alena, and Emma and then we all went down to the Columbus Zoo. The trip to my sister's was hilarious! Let it be said that my mother and I should never be allowed to travel alone together! We were talking and babbling the whole way down 71, and we ended up missing my sister's exit. Actually we missed the exit by about 45 minutes of driving! By the time we had realized we had gone too far, we were only 32 miles from Columbus, and were joking about how we should just call Heidi up and meet her at the zoo. We turned around and finally got off of 71 and drove on these country roads the rest of the way. Once I got off the highway, I don't think I saw a single speed limit sign, and it was driving me crazy. What's the speed limit on these roads? I was going about 55, and there were like 20 cars lined up behind me! My mom was on the phone talking to Heidi, and I'm trying to figure out how fast I should go, all the while having hot flashes, afraid to open my window because the wind would be too loud while my mom was talking. "I wish somebody would tell me the speed limit because there are five hundred cars behind me!" My mom started cracking up and then I did too. You know, the laughing where you're not really laughing at all, more like hyperventilating and crying. I could barely see where I was going and I was probably going like 25 at that point because of all the uncontrollable laughter. Heidi probably thought we were insane, there were times where my mom wasn't holding the phone up to her ear anymore, she was just sitting there cracking up. I'm sure the 500 cars behind me were not very happy with my erratic driving.
We finally got to the zoo, and it was insanely crowded. It took us about a half an hour to finally get into a parking spot in the middle of some field. Everybody was hungry at this point, so we decided we would go eat first. NEVER eat at a zoo when it is so crowded that it takes ten minutes to walk from your car to the entrance. My mom, Heidi, and I must have been in line for at least an hour, waiting for gross greasy expensive food. It was ridiculous. Not to mention that there were so many annoying people around. Like the little teenage lovers behind me oogling over each other and bumping into my camera bag at least once a minute. No matter which way I turned or how much I tried to scoot up, they were still bumping into it. But hey, at least we weren't in Kane's situation. He had both girls and a tray full of macaroni and cheese, and he walked around the food court for probably a half an hour before he actually got a table.
After the two hour eating situation, everything else was great. They have a manatee rescue/rehabilitation center there, so that was pretty neat to see. In their nocturnal house they have a kiwi! I love kiwis, they're so cute and amazing. What other bird has external nostrils at the end of it's bill and lays eggs that are like 20% of their body weight? None! Everybody should read Stephen Jay Gould's essay on them in Bully for Brontosaurus. Especially since amazon.com has used copies starting at $1.10! The zoo also has a place called the Habitat House which is made out of recycled materials and is run on solar power. There's a great sign in it that says "Cigarette Butts Are Litter". I need one! It absolutely disgusts me when people throw cigarette butts out of their window. There was a study recently done in Ohio (by a company in Kent actually) that reported that "smokers pitch an estimated 421.7 tons of cigarette butts yearly." That is a lot of cigarette butts. Not to mention the 972,372 bottles of urine that are found on Ohio's roadsides every year. Disgusting.
We got back to my apartment late Saturday night and mom went to do laundry with me at about 11:00pm. She was hungry afterwards, so we went to Taco Bell, and let me tell you, I hate going through the drive thru. I don't like going to fast food places at all. It was about 12:15am, and there was a big line of cars, and the service was sooo slow. We finally pulled up to order, and realized that this was no normal drive thru. Instead of an employee screaming at you through the little speaker, you had to talk to them ON A PHONE. No way. I hate talking on phones. I was not about to talk to Taco Bell through a phone that 5 million drunk college kids had breathed their stinky breath all over. So I handed the phone to my mom, and the whole situation was just weird and frightening.
My mom brought her two cockatiels down with her, Wally and Winky. I love Wally and Winky! They are so sweet, so inquisitive, so funny. I had brought Eleanor, my cockatiel, to see Dr. Krupka on Thursday, because she is missing feathers on her head. He thinks it's Marzipan that is pulling them out, so I had to separate the two, and Eleanor had just seemed depressed ever since. In fact, she didn't seem like her nomal self at all until Sunday I think. Actually, she hasn't seemed her nomal self since I moved to the new apartment. Anyways, we brought Winky and Wally into my room, set up the little playgym, and Eleanor became immediate friends with them! It was strange though because on Friday I had brought Winky right up to Eleanor's cage and she was hissing at him. She acted like she didn't want anything to do with him. But on Sunday they were so cute, Eleanor seemed so happy. She actually flew down off her cage onto the floor to play with them, and she hasn't come down onto the floor since we lived at the old apartment. I'm not sure what I'm going to do now that Wally and Winky are gone, and she's probably lonely again. I'm not sure if I should try to rescue another cockatiel to be her friend or not. Dr. Krupka said that ideally we want to put her back with Marzipan, but if she really has been pulling Eleanor's feathers out I'm not sure if I want to do that.
