it is incredible how much time you can spend just waiting to do what you want. 2 hours of driving, 2 hours of train ride, half hour of walking, and then finally, we walk up to the aquarium and lo and behold... another line. but this is the best part of going with friends. that hour wait in front of the shedd aquarium seemed to hardly last 20 minutes before we were inside.
this one day of my vacation may have mostly been spent in anticipation and travelling, but it was certainly worth it!
i remember the good old days when our school would hold rollerskating parties and everyone would hope to skate just once around the rink with their elementary school crush. however, i was pretty sure i wouldn't be going back to the rink anytime soon. but this is just one of the reasons i adore being a youth group leader.
a pile of 25 middle school students and 5 leaders went to the rink last night — the same rink i went to when i was younger. and i have never had so much fun rollerskating. by far, the highlight of the night was rolling around one of our leaders in his wheelchair. we had some pretty goofy moments trying to turn the chair with the curve of the rink, including riding on just two of the wheels for a while. but the best part was the race at the end. we finished last, of course, but we were still certainly ripping around the rink and having a blast the whole while.
of course then there was the health reform debate held in the backseat of my car between three sixth-grade boys, but i'll let your imagination fill in the details there.
we are the proud owners of three toads: jumoke, roland (whose former name was robin) and magnum. without these little green guys in our room, i fear we would suffer very much from lack of cuteness at college, where there are no baby animals, nor babies, nor animals. we've had quite a few stories about these fire-bellied toads, but recently we just decided to host a fourth little guy, kermit (or froggie) from fellow floormates.
he's already adapted and decided to change colors ‒ these toads range from a dark olive to bright lime green ‒ however has also decided he's sick of the company. today when i returned from my internship, i saw that he had shimmied his way all the up to the corner of the terrarium. as i lifted up the lid to get a better look at him, i saw him struggle to make it around the last lip of the glass. unsuccessful, he began his retreat sliding back down the glass.
we will have to see if the other toads learn to follow his example or not. though apparently his former tankmate escaped, and i suspect it may have been in the same manner.
