Confession

In a little over a year, I will be taking [insert state here] bar exam. Which, is really just going to be... so awful. Like there is literally nothing pleasant about this time next year, and roughly the two months preceding it.

Which means that in a little more than a little over a year, I will, in theory anyway, have a real live legal job lined up, and will become a practicing attorney.

I find this fact pants-crappingly terrifying.

This is my confession. Incidentally, I just got off of Skype with an old high school friend of mine who is now in Mississippi of all places, and a large chunk of our conversation was a kind of collective disbelief that we are, in fact, adults. There are legitimate kids now, younger than us, and we are not them. We are old and, in my case, in a year will be fully independent, theoretically competent adults. Or at least we will expected to be. This is expected of me, who has only ever known childhood, adolescence, and youth.

I don't think I am dumb, and I know that I can probably handle it. It's more of a shock that it is actually happening. Growing up, that thing we call "adulthood" seemed so far off into the future, this kind of shadow thing that, even though you heard about it, and knew that conceptually, in the abstract, one day you would reach it, you never *actually* thought it was going to happen to you.

And then it does. Even in my "young adult" days, which was college until about now, I could put on the aires of responsibility, and had more freedom, but in the end, I could always play the "student" card. I was (and am, for a few more months, anyway) relatively insulated. You don't think about the time passing, at least I don't. And it passes quickly. And it happens so fast, it creeps up on you, you don't see it coming, so when it finally does happen, you wonder if you are really ready for it. You want "another five minutes" to get ready. But it has already happened, and the question is whether you can handle it.

Adults always seemed so... old, and together, and I always thought by the time I was an adult, I would have it all together, that the pieces would all be in place, and that I would know what to do. My parents, and any adults I knew, always seemed like that to me when I was a kid. And now I am starting to realize they were probably winging it as much as I am. And as anyone does. That realization, I think, is the real source of fear or dread or whatever. The knowledge that at some level, we are all throwing shit against the wall to see what sticks. But we are still to make something of that shit-flinging, and "not fuck up."

In the end, most people figure it out. I will too, I am sure. It's just so... sudden. To quote The Grateful Dead (or Jimmy Buffett, depending on what recording you are listening to), "woh oh/what I want to know/where does the time go?"

Life

Me

And because I referenced it in the blog, and it is relevant, and I like the song:

Uncle John's Band by The Grateful Dead. Alpine Valley Concert 1989

Lions and Tigers and Bears, Oh My!

So, I made it to the Bronx Zoo today, and despite some mild shadiness in the two-and-a-half blocks between the subway (actually, really El stop, since halfway through the Bronx the subway stops being a subway) and the entry to the zoo, it was actually fine (something I have learned about New York: have an I-am-pissed-off and unpleasant face, and people will leave you alone. Good defense mechanism). And I am glad I went. I am always a sucker for animals, if you couldn't tell from this blog, and this place had quite the selection, way more extensive than the Central Park Zoo, and surprisingly not much more (at least if you got the general admission ticket. With some of the add-ons, or the "full experience" ticket, it could start to get up there price-wise). Anyway, it was a nice afternoon, although now I can barely move from stiffness brought on by 3.5 hours of non-stop walking. But it was worth it. Rather than me blabber on, I am just going to let the animals do the talking, since they are the stars of the show.

Entryway to the Bronx Zoo from Boston Ave. in the Bronx

The first animal to greet me, were camels. Camels are silly animals. They do a really exaggerated chewing motion, and it is entertaining. I actually went on a camel ride around the ring. I am glad I didn't get spat on

Don't know what kind of bird this was, but it looked suitably exotic. Something from Asia, since that was the section of the park I was in at the time

An Asian species of crane, drinking from some skeezy-looking water

Big Kitty (aka Snow Leopard... no, not the OS) taking a silly nap

"Ugh. I gotta learn to lay off the weekend parties. All those rum-and-cokes make for a really unpleasant Monday, ya know? What, you thought all those drinks in those commercials were "soft?" How else do you think we get through 30 takes for a 30-second shot?"

Polar bear totally flaked out. Don't blame him. The North Pole New York in the summer is not

Tee-hee-hee. Polar bear bum. He's being silly. I thought this was absolutely adorbes

A baboon of some type. They are kind of intense in person, actually

Cheekeh monkeh!

Some Ibex (Ibi?)-- which are basically Savannah goat-type animals

So, there were like, all these peacocks, just chillin' all over the zoo. Not in enclosures, just allowed to roam free. Is this normal? They didn't give a shit about humans being there, either. I think they excepted us to move out of the way for them, in typical peacock fashion

Some kind of Savannah deer-like animal. From the "African Prairie" habitat enclosure. Many different species of animals put all together in one

Including lions. I have always wondered how like zoos, when they put predator-type animals and prey-type animals together in the same enclosure, prevent the predators from, you know, eating the prey, when clearly that is not the goal...

King of the jungle, man. That dude is not to be trifled with

When I first saw the lions, that old familiar song popped right into my head and, well, I can't resist:

Now good luck getting THAT out of your head for the next two hours :)

Peacock sighting number 2

Giraffes. What to say, other than that they are pretty bamf animals just generally

Freaking peacocks, again!

Some exotic-looking white bird

No trip to the zoo would be complete without seeing the pink flamingos

You know there are more plastic pink flamingos in North America, than there are actual pink flamingos in the world? That is sad, both for what it says about the status of pink flamingos as a species, and for what it says about the tastes of the American public

Lemur! Silly lemur, eating food while hanging upside-down

...Because this isn't terrifying at all. Nile crocodile, looking like he is going to eat you

Ring-tailed lemurs just chillin'

Another cool looking bird. Don't know the species

Tortoises native to Madagascar. I always thought tortoises were bigger

C'mon, lil' dude. Don't be shy, some say "hi!"

Some cute red-tailed mongeese(gooses?). Cute, that is, until they take down an MF-ing king cobra...

Some red lemur-like animals hanging out behind a mini waterfall

I got to watch the sea lions get fed fish. They were very excited to get fed. It was adorable

Another sea lion hamming it up for the onlookers

PENGUINS!

Not sure what he was, but this guy was a handsome looking fellow, so I took a picture. Some kind of sea bird

Puffin!

Another regal-looking bird, I think in the crane family

The stork. Poor guy looked kind of lonely in his habitat by himself. I felt bad for him

Vultures...are frickin scary birds. You should have seen the wingspan on this thing. Not surprising that they are descendants of freaking velociraptors

Bald Eagle, aka 'Murica, aka USA! USA! USA! Seems appropriate since it is Olympics season

Grizzly bear was hiding behind a fallen tree, trying to cool off in his little pond

Can kind of see his head peeking up from behind the log

Getting up-close and personal with a tiger. Thank god there was glass

Hands-down my best picture of the day. And a fitting end to the day, as well

And again, on that note, because I can't resist:

And with that, there was my day at the zoo. Very fun, but also very tiring. I hope you enjoyed viewing these pictures of the animals, as much as I enjoyed taking them.

If you are interested in visiting the Bronx Zoo, you can find the information at the zoo's website.

The Bronx Zoo is located at:

Bronx Zoo
2300 South Blvd
Bronx, New York

There hours are as follows: March 31-Nov. 4, they are open Monday - Friday 10:00AM-5:00PM, Weekends & Holidays 10:00AM-5:30PM. Fall/winter hours are: Nov. 5 - March 29, daily 10:00AM-4:30PM.

This is family-friendly entertainment. Bring the kids!

And finally, lest you think I didn't do anything Sunday, I did in fact go out and explore Chinatown a little more in-depth (sad, considering I live on the edge of it). I wandered around the (very) crowded streets, and even managed to pick up a few things I had been wanting, namely: some steel chopsticks, some of those ceramic Chinese soup spoons (which are far superior to regular spoons for things like soup), and a Chinese tea set, ceramic. Which, considering that was a fair amount of stuff, did not set me back too much. Chinatown prices I guess. You know what was ridiculous, though? My boyfriend has been wanting a real cast-iron wok to cook with (he is a foodie, and a pretty intensive cook). So I thought, New York Chinatown: logical place to find such a wok, I will look there and have an authentic one shipped back to Chicago. Damn, you would have thought I was looking for the Holy Grail. I only found one shop that had them, and then they were ovepriced. I talked to the BF about it, and we both decided we could get a better one for less online. It was just sad.

Anyway, here are some shots I took down some of the streets of Chinatown.

The unfortunate thing about Sunday was, it was super hot and super humid. I kept drinking fluids, mostly water, but just could not keep up. I think I got pretty peaky and dehydrated, in the end. After Chinatown, I went over to the Antiques Garage Flea Market in Chelsea, but I really only could stay for about 20 minutes before I literally had to find an air-conditioned Starbucks, and just sit for awhile. Otherwise, I was getting very parched and a little light-headed. But, I did manage to find a cute decor piece for the apartment before I had to abandon ship. So not all bad.

Still can't believe tomorrow is my last day in the city. It's gone way fast. I had a blast, and I am sorry to see it go. But, on to the next thing. Can't beat the clock, in the end.