My 'Other People Quotient' is Full Now

It was DH's birthday weekend, so he got to set the agenda for Saturday and Sunday. I was expecting a "do nothing" day, and indeed that was the agenda yesterday. On Saturday, however, DH decided he wanted to go to the zoo with his family; so after getting everyone dressed and breakfasted and cleaned up from breakfast, we hit the road. Argument ensued in the car as to the best ferry to take, and with a nail-biting eight minutes to go until the ferry departed and several rants at the moronic drivers ahead of us in the queue, we were finally on the ferry and on our way.

First off, let me say that we made a gargantuan error in choosing to go to the city zoo, instead of the other one. We had to deal with a maze of one-way streets and crazy lanes that stopped without warning or became left-only lanes without warning or were acceptable street parking at any time except 2 hours M-F (remember it was a Saturday, peeps). Even lunch at Chipotle did not improve my mood--it was a location near a university and the quality/service suffers with a lackluster and non-demanding student audience. Grrr.

We finally got to the zoo, and discovered it has the World's Worst Parking Ever ^TM . Yes, they don't tell you about that on all the radio ads about their great new African exhibit and the Maasai. They don't tell you that not ONLY will you contend with ridiculous streets and angles to contort your car in and out of numerous parking lots, but that every other freakin' person in the greater Seattle area will be there to use the park or go to the zoo, and there will be a quintillion zillion other cars a la the Kia commercial zooming to get parking spots when they miraculously appear. I was driving (and ranting) and after we had circled the entire park once and found NO PARKING, I gritted my teeth and started circling the last lot. DH wanted me to continue around to the other lots again, something I was sure was only going to be a perpetual merry-go-round, so I said through my gritted teeth, "No, we are staying here and we are FINDING a parking spot or we are LEAVING and going to the OTHER ZOO!" DH wisely stopped talking and I concentrated on skulking behind people who might be returning to their cars, along with the other dozen or so cars doing the same in this lot.

I will spare you the agony of waiting for the Chinese lady with the stroller who was only getting something from her car, but finally we got super lucky and were in the right spot when a young couple came out and quickly departed. Hallelujah! DD, who had been asking endlessly when she was going to see the 'creatures', was delighted. Fortuitously DS slept through the entire parking debacle. We paid for our parking and tickets, and proceeded to evaluate what is supposedly the 'better' zoo for our area.

Needless to say, the zillion jillion people who were looking for parking, or occupying the parking spots, were in fact IN the zoo. For some reason my brain had not processed this before we entered the zoo, and we found ourselves mooing along with a sea of people meandering from exhibit to exhibit. If there is one thing DH & I find more irritating than a herd of humans, I don't know what it is. We were quickly reminded of our dislike of places full of people, as the worst human character traits were on display. Adults who had been standing watching the animals for (I kid you not) TEN minutes or more actually gave ugly looks to parents with small children who attempted to wedge their young ones in where they could actually SEE the lion, or the giraffes, etc. Unbelievable. All the fun crafts that the zoo had artfully advertised were, of course, NOT FREE, so we passed on those after burning up who knows how many dollars of gas trying to find parking (parking which we had to also pay for, btw). My personal favorite was the woman who was making faces at the large male orangutan and who took off her glasses and stepped right up to the glass when he came over to get a closer look, and actually started making noises at him. Yeah, because *I* wouldn't find that annoying if I were on exhibit. I'll bet he was contemplating how easily he could grab her neck and wring it if it weren't for that darned annoying glass. Leave the animals be, please!

The most annoying and frequently repeated annoyance was people stopping right in the middle of the freakin' path! You know, those small, narrow paths that meander through foliage to make you think you're actually in Asia or Africa or whatnot? The ones that it's next to impossible to maneuver a double stroller through without nudging someone and getting a dirty look, unless you are making minute steering adjustments all the time? Those paths? Yeah, people would just STOP right in the middle and discuss the weather, politics, the presidential race...ok, so maybe they were talking about what they wanted to see next, but come on people!! Don't stop in the middle of the path on a crowded day with people all around you trying to get by! And for Pete's sake, MOVE ON when it becomes clear that you're blocking everyone else!

We stopped for ice cream and found a blissfully quiet corner in the shade from which to people watch. DH braved the line for the ice cream, bless him, while I claimed our corner. There wasn't a table, but that is the beauty of the double stroller with built-in trays. Ahhhhh...relax! We noted sadly that most kids & people were overweight, regardless of ethnicity or gender. We include ourselves in that classification, natch. I'm working on it...but it was a good reminder that we have to be diligent with our kiddos to be sure they get enough exercise and good snacks, not just easy pre-packaged crap. Good reminder. Ice cream eaten, DH said he was done and it was time to go. Thank the Lord. Both of us said our OPQs were full--and that little dose will last us for quite a while.