Today was my last day at the museum, and was, except for an afternoon adventure which I will later detail, a very normal day, which opened with (finally) my obligatory selfie with Sue. For those of you who don’t know, Sue is the resident T. Rex, and is kind of a big deal because she’s the largest, most complete, and best preserved T. Rex fossil in the world.

(She’s also cuter than me… look at that smile.)

Anyway, I walk in every morning and try to break through the throng of Sue selfie (Suelfie?)-takers to get to the paleo office. On day one I thought the craze was a little stupid. By the middle of the second week, I thought it was a bit cute. I woke up on my last day with an urgent need for a Suelfie.

Following that, I spent my morning struggling to reassemble an enormous and completely shattered brontothere tibia. We broke at noon for a much-needed cheeseburger break, and somehow got onto the subject of bug phobias. I mentioned that I’d never had a problem with spiders (put a wasp anywhere in my line of sight and I will scream like a four-year-old watching Saw II, but that’s another story).

My co-intern immediately said, “Oh, she has to meet Jim!”

“Who’s Jim?” I asked.

“A tarantula,” explained my manager.

“Well,” my co-intern elaborated, “Jim’s technically the tarantula’s owner, but the tarantula’s Jim too. Little Jim.”

I was game, so immediately after our lunch break we went upstairs to the entomology department, where I made a few friends. Big Jim was cool, Little Jim was startlingly fluffy and docile (he hung out on my hand for a bit)…

(My new arachnid BFF)

…and I learned that scorpions would have a great time at an EDM festival. Confused?

(It’s because they glow under blacklights. Seriously…check him out.)

That left us with about three hours to work on the tibia again before we said our goodbyes and I took my last slightly shady, gospel-music-blaring taxi ride back to Ogilvie Station.

(Just as the snow was starting to melt…)

Overall, a very cool time. Over & out,

xx

liicranberry