cblj_backup | (no subject)

I set out this morning intending to go to the Shedd Aquarium, but the line was really long and I'd thought it was a free day when it wasn't. So I decided for half the cost of Aquarium admission and no wait I could get into the Field Museum half a block away.

Every time I go to the Field Museum, two things happen:

1. I am reminded why I don't go to the Field Museum more often, because it's this weird mixture of early-20th-century dioramas and BRIGHT! SHINY! SIMPLISTIC! exhibits for kids. Also, all the kids. I'm torn between worrying people will think I'm a perv for being a grownup alone at the Field and just really wanting to kick the nearest toddler.

2. I encounter at least one truly amazing thing that will be all I remember the next time I think to myself, "Why don't I go to the Field Museum more often?"

This time I also unexpectedly ended up in a parade, but that doesn't usually happen.

There's an exhibit going on right now through September called Traditions Retold: Mexican Nativity Scenes. It's tiny, just a single room, but it was better than the Horse and Design For Living exhibits combined (this wasn't hard, as The Horse was a hot mess and Design For Living was totally incoherent). Really interesting, beautiful display pieces and very educational.

Also there's a bug exhibit on, so there was a guy in the main hall with a HUGE display of preserved insects and spiders and a bunch of live ones too. Right as I stepped up to investigate a tarantula in a glass case he popped the top off it and announced "This is Hannah. Who wants to hold her?"

So I got to hold a tarantula, which was AWESOME. They're so soft! And much lighter than they look. I kind of want one now.

And I poked around in the Animals of Asia diorama room, and went upstairs to look at the gems and jade, and saw a few other things, and then decided it was time to go home.

Except that to get from the Museum Campus to the El, you have to walk through this LABYRINTH of footpaths in the campus park, made more complicated today by the fact that half the paths were blocked off because there was some kind of parade queueing up. I still have no idea what the point of the parade was, but my indomitably bad sense of direction led me straight up the one flight of stairs not blocked off by the police and into the heart of the parade.

If you've never had "GET OUT OF THE PARADE!" yelled at you while trying to cross the street, you haven't truly lived.

But aside from antagonising the cops and feeling as if I drastically overpaid for access to the Horse exhibit, it was a pretty good day.