Membership Has its Privileges

First, let me say that I am happy to report that my children fear nothing. By nothing I mean dead animals and live bugs (unless said bugs are arthropods that begin with a 'centi'- and end with a 'pede.' They also fear tornadoes, but that's another blog.) 

Cadaver beetles eating a dead bird.

Caleb and a dead bird.

We went to the Field Museum member night this past weekend. The member nights alone are worth the price of membership, and whenever we are members we try to stop in for one of the nights that they open the back rooms to we curious and intrepid explorers who want to know more and see more than there is room to display in the museum. So Friday night we headed downtown.

Hannah and a dead bird.

I learned a lot in our hours exploring the museum. I learned that Hannah's shoes don't fit any more. She complained about it quite a bit. This is important because we just bought her new shoes and I am not pleased. Her feet hurt by the end of the night, and so did mine, but my shoes fit just fine.

I also learned that Caleb's hair is long enough to put into a ponytail. This coupled with his purple shirt had several people address him as "little girl." He got a kick out of it. "Little, eh. Maybe," he told me. "Girl, no way!"
"Get used to it," George griped.

The back of Caleb's head. Note the ponytail.

The kids got to hold a live tarantula and a hissing cockroach. I was busy in the anthropology department learning about X-ray spectrography and Girl's Day in Japan. I'd rather look at dead people than hold a tarantula. However because of this hangup, I didn't get any photos. There are some on George's phone because he likes bugs a lot more than I do.

Because one of the big draws right now is the Genghis Khan exhibit, they had Mongolian dancers. It was very cool, but Hannah and Caleb were not as entranced by the music as wereGeorge and myself. It was a great moment to talk about different tonal scales and how different cultures have more limited musical tonality than western cultures. I think they got it. In any case, George and I liked the music. We all liked the dancers.

Three dancers (not yet performing)and curious onlookers

Mongolian dancer. Skulls on her head and three eyes. Very cool.

I didn't discover this, but I was reminded that this is a pretty cool place to live.