Not All Who Wander Are Lost

Some days are just electrifying.

The spouse had some design work to do for the previously ranted-about Dwight Night semi-formal today, and the in-laws cancelled their trip north due to impending freezing rain, so we didn't need to dog-sit. Who better to spend the last day of vacation with than the two-year wonder?

Which is how, after a long discussion on why it wasn't okay to go out dressed only in one of my old tee-shirts, the two year old and I headed out for the nearby indoor butterfly gardens, a year-round oasis of warm humid foliage in the midst of an as-yet almost snowless winter...and our traditional father-daughter adventure spot. Highlights of the day included a momentary yellow butterfly clinging to the bright red apple on her sweatshirt front, huge burgers and softserve cones in the snack shop, and plenty of snuggles.

Best for both of us, though, was the fat six-inch walking stick, brown skin and tiny green spines, left clinging to my hands while the "flight attendant" wandered off, leaving me to play docent to a shimmering crowd of the short and small, each braver than the last.

Funny how you can go to bed one night sure that your career is on the right path, and find yourself up too late the next night, wondering why you ever left that Fellowship at the Museum of Science in Boston.

Funny how much I miss being the center of attention, the lab-coated expert, the autograph-signing "lightning guy" with all the cool toys -- yes, that's me in the cage, circa 1995 -- prized for my verbosity and eagerness instead of reviled for it as I have been much of the time here.

And wasn't it nice to have a place to go every day where you could, say, decide to spend the morning walk around with a Madagascan Hissing Cockroach on my lapel all day and show it off, and that was the point? Or putting vaseline-coated skewers through balloons without popping them just so people would demand an explanation? Or smashing frozen tennis balls with a sledgehammer in front of a hundred scouts?

I know I promised no real resolutions, but maybe it would be worth keeping museum education on the possibility plate when reentering the world of the workplace over the next few months. Sure would beat the drudgery I'm looking at for the week ahead, that's for sure.

Comments:

Given the stuff you did in your previous job, it's amazing to me that you accepted and enjoyed a teaching position.

# posted by

Comic Tools : 5:11 PM, January 03, 2005

Given the stuff you did in your previous job, it's amazing to me that you accepted and enjoyed a teaching position.I do miss it terribly, and yes it was hellafun most days. But, alas:

1. My Fellowship wasn't renewed.

2. I had to go back to school and finish my bachelor's degree if I wanted to come back and be offered a permanent position.

3. In thinking about my degree, I found myself realizing that much of the fun at the museum was of the sweet-but-not-nutritious variety, i.e., for example, one never knew if one was making a difference in the lives of one's "students," since they only stuck around for a few minutes at best...and subsequently began making plans for a situation which offered longer-lasting, more enduring and personally rewarding relationships with students.

Not sure if I feel like I still need that...or, if with my degree and background, I would find myself no longer unsatisfied. Something to ponder, anyway.

# posted by

boyhowdy : 9:23 PM, January 03, 2005