Lemur kisses are the best kind.

I love my job.

Today was a great day. We celebrated the zoo's birthday--"Happy Birthday, Zoo!" The theme was "Big and Tall, Short and Small Birthday." We celebrated four zoo animal birthdays. (It wasn't really anyone's birthday, we just celebrated them all together.) "Gladys" the Galapagos Tortoise, was our "big," "Caz" the Cassowary was our "tall," "Elena" the Sun Bear was our "short," and "Princess" our Green-winged Macaw was our "small." We gave them all "birthday cakes" as a gift, and let the kids make birthday cards to hang in front of the enclosures. All but the bears (Elena shared with her mom and sister) got a watermelon bowl/basket filled with fruit. The bears got boxes with fruit so they could play with the cardboard after they ate.

Gladys and Caz were my favorites today. They so obviously enjoyed their "cakes" that it was just a pleasure to watch them. The word that came to my mind while watching Gladys devour her basket was "gusto." By the time she was done, her watermelon was just a patch of bare earth in her enclosure. She had even eaten the grass underneath! We had given her a whole watermelon with a handle cut in to it, and part of it hollowed out so we could put more fruit in it. It took her just shy of an hour to eat the entire thing. Caz only got half of a hollowed out watermelon. We put his favorites (grapes and tomatoes) in with some other fruits. He just looked so pleasantly surprised to be getting a treat! It was cute. The poor guy is sort of off in a corner, and he can be a little scary looking, so he's not in the spot light often. We held his bowl up to the wire and he daintily picked out grape after grape, tossing them up and swallowing them whole. When we dropped it all over the side, he actually sat/lay down to eat. Very soon he started eating the "bowl" itself. He seemed to like it so much that we went and stole the rest of the watermelon from the parrots (they weren't very interested in it).

Since I'm a bonafide education staff member this summer, I've been doing the stage programs. Instead of holding the animals while the educator talks about them, I'm the one with the mic. Until today, I was super nervous before doing a show. Actually, I was super nervous until near the end of each show... Anyway, it was weird because I usually don't mind speaking in front of people. But did you notice? ^Up there?^ I said, "until today." Today was the most awesome show I've ever ever given, and I wasn't even nervous! Well, the exhaustion may have had something to do with the not nervous part, but that's beside the point. =p Anyway, I am super excited about the show I did this afternoon. I did the introduction and the conclusion we are supposed to do for the first time. My facts flowed really well and I was able to connect almost all of them to our habitat theme. I was even animated despite how tired I was ten seconds before I went on stage. There are still things I need to work on, but I don't think I'll be nervous anymore. =D

Lastly, I got to go in with the lemurs again today. I held one of the babies while some adults scent marked my shoes and ankles. One sweet girl named Zoe sat on my shoulder and licked my arm and cheek. Let me tell you, lemur kisses are the best kind. They're sort of puppy kisses meet butterfly kisses. And lemur hands! SO SOFT. I love lemurs. They're my favorite.

Ok, [/super long entry].