Chimpanzees, Brush fires, and Interrogations

It is half past three in the afternoon, and I am so extremely sleepy, but I shall not nap! Because I am going to blog, and then study for whatever it is I feel like studying afterward.
This morning, I uncharacteristically got up before nine (8:44, to be exact) because I had to go to the zoo for an anthro assignment. I was kind of looking forward to it last night, because I actually get to sit down, observe people, and write observations down! (I'd always wanted to do that, just to see how people would react.) So I woke up, read a few pages of Lang&Lit for Deca (surprise, surprise), ate breakfast, and then left home for the zoo with my mother and sister a little past ten. We got there just before eleven and lined up for a short while to get tickets, which were $12 each. (My mom says that when we used to go, they were half the price for adult tickets!) Anyway, it was so gay (I haven't used that word to describe a situation in a while), because there weren't even that many people in line, but then we had to keep walking around and around the link chains or whatever just to get behind the people who were there! I so wanted to just step over those chains and get to the end of the line. But I didn't, because, you know, one has to behave in a civilized manner for social acceptance. Anyway, it was pretty quick. We went in, then walked around for SO VERY LONG to find the dumb chimpanzees. We walked AROUND AND AROUND AND AROUND, and after like, an hour finally found those rascals...or, well, PRIMATES. During the search, though, we saw some pretty cool animals. Lots of the monkeys and their relatives have diabetes! Which was an interesting fact. It was kind of redundant to put up a sign that says to not feed them anything, though, when they already have those large fences with not even big enough holes for humans to put their hands through to even attempt to feed the animals. So the chimpanzee area was pretty popular. People came and went very frequently, while I stayed there for OVER AN HOUR, filling out my worksheets and making observations. For the longest time, the chimpanzees did not do anything; only six or seven out of sixteen were visible, and they just sat there! They were probably tired or something then, because as it neared 1 o' clock, they started jumping around and banging and pounding on the display windows and all that! It was exciting, finally. Um, I could tell you the observations I made, but I don't want to have to type so much. But it was cool later on. A zookeeper was throwing down apples, and a few of the chimps finally started making noises. At one point, one of them was peeing... and that made people laugh. A while thereafter, one was...UNCONSTIPATING, and people were making exclamations of shock! Apparently, it is socially acceptable amongst chimpanzees to take a dump like that. But then again, they do, to a certain extent, have manners, because at least she (yeah, I can determine sexes!) walked away before doing it, you know? It was so interesting! Last night, I spent hours reading up on chimpanzees (yeah, really!) and set my mind of observing them and them only just because they are so similar to humans (98.4 to 99.4 percent similar DNA), genetically and characteristically. So, yeah. There were ones who were hugging and kissing, too! I was astonished (yes, astonished) to read about that last night, and intrigued to witness it today. The chimpanzees are quite the crowd pleaser. Seriously. Anyway, I was done making observations of the non-human primates at one, so I took a seat at the benches where a lot of people were sitting and watching the animals as well, to begin to observe people for the second part of the assignment. Just as I began to describe the surroundings, I noticed that a lot of people were starting to leave! All at once! I frantically exclaimed to my sister, "They can't leave! What are they doing?! I need to observe them!" Then this guy from behind whistles and says, "Evacuate!" I was sort of confused, because everything seemed perfectly fine. But then he told people that there was a fire behind the zoo, so...yeah, we couldn't NOT leave, you know? It was so... Well, there were SO MANY PEOPLE as we were evacuating. I mean, when you're walking around, you're not aware of how many people there actually are, right? But then when everybody is walking toward the same direction for the same reason, it's THEN when you realize just how many people are in the same place as you are, WATCHING ANIMALS. Or, trying to. And since I didn't get to observe people like I needed and actually WANTED to, I just randomly took pictures of people during evacuation. And then in the parking lot... Gosh, that was freaking insane. Like, not even exciting-insane, but boring-insane. There were so many, many cars trying to exit, and people kept cutting people off. I'm surprised a riot didn't begin! Such well-behaved people, though impolite. But I don't really blame 'em, though, because it's only a natural response for (normal) people to want to leave a fire zone as quickly as possible. It was so dumb, though, because they had a fire truck (or two) BLOCKING THE EXIT while they were trying to evacuate people. How ironic, huh? Goodness. Finally, a guy that was just standing outside there told us that we could turn and exit at the side, which, thankfully, turned out to be much, much faster. And finally, we got home at 2:30.
I wonder what my teacher will say when I tell her I couldn't observe the human species of primates because there was a fire nearby... Darn! I've always wanted to observe and write down observations of people! But it just so had to happen that there was a fire TODAY. Talk about adversity. Gee.

I spent so much time typing that up. And now I'm even sleepier. Let's see... Hmm. So, yeah, observing chimpanzees was fun, and, surprisingly, so was reading about them. I know quite a bit about this species of primate now, which is cool, and may come in good use in the event that I may have a whim to become the next Jane Goodall (also known to my sister as "Jane Austen", haha). Eh, probably not.

Yesterday, I actually studied for anthro. Well, kind of, not really; I read over the powerpoints from class a few times, and then... ahem. Well, okay, that was all, but that took hours!
The midterm for econ is sometime this week; exam two for anthro is also sometime this week. Hopefully they will not end up being on the same day. But, according to my adversity, they probably will! Gosh.

I have to charge the camera battery after this.
And print the photos sometime this week.
And get something from somewhere for something.
And wish somebody a happy birthday tomorrow and the day after (two different people).
And read Lang&Lit for Deca.
And study for econ and anthro.
And work on the zoo assignment again.
And call certain somebody's. (Ha, probably will not happen.)
And SLEEP!

So very sleepy...

So tomorrow is Monday, and the following day is Tuesday. What's after that?! Just kidding. I'm just bored and boring myself even further. Today's weather is pretty nice. Not too hot, not at all cold (obviously). Sun's out, but not blazing. Nice, cool breezes... What am I, a weather forecaster person?! Hahaha, I used to have trouble coming up with the word "mailman/woman". I'd say, "Where's the post office lady?" whenever I was anticipating mail. Don't get me wrong, I knew the whole time I was using the wrong term, but I was in lack of the correct one, so...yeah.

I woke up from some pretty interesting dreams this morning, and I did think about them afterward, but now I've long since forgotten them. I remember I used to dream and vividly remember each of them almost every night, and now, I just don't remember at all. I can't say that I don't dream anymore, because according to what I learned in psychology a while ago, one does dream, but it's simply because he or she is in such deep sleep that he or she does not recall it upon awakening. See, if you're dreaming and you remember it afterward, then you're not really getting your sleep, because your brain isn't resting. Know what I mean?
But I don't know, I just might be misinforming and misleading you. On purpose.
Just kidding. I'm quite certain about my accuracy about that. Imagine if I'd spelled accuracy wrong. Then how confident would you be in what I say? Ha.

Misty-May Treanor and Kerry Walsh are my heroes! I want to play volleyball like them someday. Or, just watch them play sometime. Over one hundred (101) matches in a row they won! And like, 18 tournaments! Consecutively! That is tremendously, stupendously superbular! (No, that wasn't a word.) After that ended, I watched the last five minutes or so of the football championship game between San Jose and Philadelphia. It was rather exciting; I now understand how/why my piano teacher's husband is so fanatic about football. Such a close game, too! It was cool. Philadelphia won; they have better uniforms, so they deserved it. Haha.

Seriously, I am extremely sleepy, and I have just begun battle-buddying for Deca (after HOW LONG?!), so I can't really step away from the computer until after like, two hours. Maybe one. We are currently discussing the basics of art.

I am so sleepy right now!

But I'll still take the time and make the effort to do the following and post pictures for you to enjoy (or not):


Pain is inevitable. Suffering is optional.
-M. K. Casey

You can't run away from trouble. There ain't no place that far.
-Uncle Remus

Some luck lies in not getting what you thought you wanted but getting what you have, which once you have got it you may be smart enough to see is what you would have wanted had you known.
-G. Keillor (what a genius)