October 2, 1999

Mark wasn't there today because another staff member was getting married. It was a short staff that day, so I was basically on my own. Meh, was it ever a day for screwing up.

I did all my usual stuff and went to feed the turtles. I got my first bite today too. It was from Raphael. More my fault though. I gave her a small piece and as I put it into her mouth, I didn't move my hand fast enough. It was only a little nip though. Didn't hurt. But it was my first bite, anyway..

And Raphael got a little too excited and took out a chunk of my waders. She came up behind me and grabbed them and tugged once. She didn't swallow anything (which is good), but just tore a big flap off. Water gushed in. I had water in my left leg up to my knee. I kept feeding them and climbed out. To kind of get out, I climb over the plexiglass wall and stand on a concrete ledge. I can't jump down because for some reason, I get a weird pain in the bottom of my foot if I jump from a high distance. I also can't jump down cause I'm in waders and will probably fall over. So I sit down on the concrete and then hop onto the ground. As soon as I sat down I felt my whole upper leg and my butt get *very* wet. All this water squished up all over my legs.

One of the black necked stilts that lives in the turtle exhibit.

I kind of sighed and slunk to the back area. Slunk because I couldn't really lift the boot off the ground. I'd pick up my foot, but all the water kept it on the ground so the boot dragged as I walked. I had a huge stack of bowls in my arms from the turtles and I pulled the ones left over from the birds eating earlier in the day and was staggering along with them. The bowl on top (a dish with the bird food) toppled off and the leftover food spilled *everywhere.* And they eat krill (it's like shrimp.. but maybe about as long as the tip of your finger to the first knuckle) and trout chow (which looks something like rabbit pellets. Small and round and crunchy.) It was everywhere. So I picked it all up. (With some little girl in the background saying, "Look Mommy!! She spilled it all!!" and giggling. Argh) So I restacked all the bowls and went to the back.

When I got in the back, I pulled off the waders and dumped a TON of water out and wrung out my socks. I hitched the waders over my shoulder so I could dump them in the Bat Cave (a little hole in the wall where junk is stored) to be patched up later. I went downstairs and opened the door to go inside the building and dropped the birds' food AGAIN. I left it, dumped the waders, and came back and swept it up. Then I headed into the kitchen with my little stack of dishes.

I noted that the kitchen had a sign on it reading "Kitchen is clean." I kind of groaned cause this meant that the floor would be damp from hosing it down and I'd have to wash off my shoes or get a muddy mess on the floor. I walked in and started to go over to the table to set down the dishes. As I did this, the dishes wobbled and I dumped the remaining bird food on the floor.