Fear Factor

You would never have known I was returning to my alma mater for the field trip yesterday the way I prepared for it. The day before I printed a UGA map out from online, and I even called the entymology department...just to make sure the map was accurate and to procure parking recommendations. Having never visited the science department in the latter years of my higher education, I wanted to ensure I would not be late due to my wandering aimlessly around campus. Punctuality is one of just a handful of golden rules by which I abide. Obsessively. And compulsively.

However, since I had to circle the parking deck two or three...hundred times. And, despite the fact that I literally ran with all 4 kids in tow--one of whom (I won't mention any names) firmly planted her little pink shoes and refused to run, and so I had to carry her over hill and dale, through parking lots, up stairs, down stairs, in and out of throngs of amused college students--making me feel old indeed. Because of the aforementioned parking deck and despite my good intentions, we were late. But just by a few minutes.

We tracked down the Entymology Department using our best bug instincts and crashed into the room to join our little group, a group for whom this was our first meeting, so I don't even want to venture a guess about their first impressions. Once we got settled, though, we thoroughly enjoyed the presentation in Room 426. I enjoyed it especially because it allowed me to confront my fears. Notice I said "confront." An actual resolution would certainly cost years of therapy.

Meet my fears:

Believe it or not, I touched one of these Madagascar Cockroaches...just because it was funny how it hissed at me. I almost hissed back at it until I remembered I was the Parent. You know, maturity, blah, blah, blah...

I was offered this same hands-on opportunity...yeah, right! I couldn't stand these things crunching under my feet in Africa; can't stand 'em now either!

And, though my inferior fits-in-my-pocket camera wouldn't quite focus, when the lady brought these out, I couldn't help but giggle a little when I thought of my Audrey Bug:

I'm sure everyone else thought I was giggling out of some sadistic feeling of glee in seeing a bug dead. Wait a minute...

Which does bring to mind the fact that halfway through the presentation, Michael reached out and squished a little bug with the end of his pencil. I don't believe this was a specimen but rather some innocent little buggy chap who heard there was a party in this room and ventured down for a look-see. "Don't kill any bugs in here, Michael," I whispered out of the corner of my mouth while keeping my eyes on the presentation lady who was at the moment allowing cockroaches to roam freely on her hands and arms. I quickly brushed the little bug corpse on to the floor to remove all evidence. You can't blame the boy. He's a trained bug killer because that is his job when TravelDaddy is gone.

Honestly, we all actually had a really good time, although my fellow bug hater disklike-er told me afterwards that next time, if we were to return to my alma mater for a field trip, she might prefer a visit to the veterinarian school where the animals are, though perhaps not that much larger than some of these enormous bugs, much less creepy more cuddly.

A cockroach, pale in color because it hasn't completed its metamorphosis.