Hayden got teamed up with this boy named Chris. Chris is very introverted and I spent most of the day trying to make him laugh... or even respond to what was going on. He would just sit around while Hayden and the other kids played. It was pretty sad to watch really. Chris had never been to the zoo, which was actually common among Hayden's fellow students. I was pretty shocked because the zoo is pretty cheap and these kids were 5 and 6. How can you live in a city with a pretty nice zoo for 6 years and not take your kids? Oh well, I guess that should be expected.
Hayden got to see the snakes, which are his favorite. Whenever we go to the zoo, this one of the highlights.
They also have a new Africa exhibit. It's really well done, with a lot of fish (which is a shocker to me, being that it was an Africa exhibit) and some fossils and whatnot.
Afterwards, all the kids were beat down tired. We got back to the school at 2:30 and we weren't suppose to leave the class till 3:00. I asked the teacher and she said that it would be 'frowned upon' if I took Hayden earlier. Luckily, I'm a sociopath and I don't care what they 'frown upon' unless it negatively affects my son. So I asked if they would be doing any work for the last half hour. She said no, so I left with Hayden at 2:30. The funny thing was, out of 7 parents there... I was the only one to do this. I'm telling you, San Antonio is the village of the idiots.
When Hayden finally got home he was dragging. So we got home, did his reading homework and pretty much relaxed until bedtime. Unfortunately, nobody explained to Serenity that we were tired. She came home from Grandma's ready to tear the house apart. In the end Hayden lounged while I played Seri out until she took a nap, which I used to make dinner. Not the most relaxing afternoon ever, but it was worth it.
Now speaking San Antonio and our high standard of intellect, I think that the parents of one of Haydens classmates were illiterate. I'm not being funny here, both the mom and the dad did not jive on the reading. I've never met an illiterate person before and I have a hard time imagining how someone who can't read can function in our society. I've seen the specials on TV where the plumber or other blue collar worker is a good father and husband, and then gets found out by the protagonist of the show, much to his embarrassment. Then he attends a 'reading class' (or some other convenient plot device) and the show ends with him telling one of his kids "No, tonight daddy will read you a story!" Yay! tears!! It's funny because the illiterate person is always a white 30 yr old man. Never a minority and never a female. Just an interesting sideline.
Anyway, I view being illiterate as not speaking the native tongue in the country you live in. When I've been on foreign soil , I've always tried to get at least enough of the local dialect to get around. Honestly, it's hard not to. So, when I see people who actually need the other language options that are usually given, I'm pretty confused as to how the manage on day to day events. When it comes to reading... there isn't always a picture option so, what do these people do? Wouldn't they just screw up everything they touch? Case in point, when we first got there ever kid had a name tag. They put their kids on upside down. Now, that might have been just for laughs but it caught my attention.
After we got to the zoo, we went to the bald eagle exhibit. The zoo has an eagle that had been shot by assholes and was rescued and nursed backed to health. Unfortunately, it can never fly again due to it's injuries, so they have it in an open area of the zoo with just a fence in between us and the bird. I think eagles are very beautiful birds and it sucks to see one that cannot fly or even fully open up it's impressive wing span.
This being the case at our zoo, there is a huge sign explaining the birds history and resulting injuries and explaining it's open pen as well. The alleged illiterate father stared at this sign for about 15 minutes before being asked by his wife why the eagle was not in a cage. Well, she actually said "Why don't that bird got no fence around it?" He responded that the bird must be free to fly around but then returns of it's own accord because of it's familiar nesting ground. Ok... it was really "He goes in the air and shit, but then he comes home 'cause that's his home... so he knows it." After that, I had to know the truth.
Thinking quickly, I devised a fool proof plan to check to see if these people could actually read. I decided to try to put them in situations where they would read stuff, and then see if they did. It was a masterpiece in ingenuity. With my plan laid out, I quickly got to work. I became the most inquisitive person ever. I would wait till they seemed to be looking at any sign and then ask a question about it. The deciding event happened right before the reptile house when the illiterate dad was starring at the huge sign on the reptile house that said "Reptile House". I asked him "Where is the Reptile House." and he said "I don't know, I don't think they got one of those."
So there you go, it's not scientific proof but it's good enough for me. I know what you're thinking... who cares. In my defense, we were there for 6 hours and I ticked off the teachers in the first 10 minutes so I had to keep myself entertained. How did I tick them off? I asked if when they see a private school on a field trip do they rumble. She said that they don't condone fighting in kindergarten. I respond that I meant like West Side Story fighting... you know, dance fighting, like all those people in San Fransisco are doing now that prop 8 has passed.
Yep... that was a good one. Oh, BTW... 99.4 on the GPS. I'm going to get in the wifes car to get it in the 120's... then I'll have to start getting inventive. I think I'll go the airliner route next.
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