Environmental Awareness

I had airport business in Atlanta late Monday evening, so I decided to use some points, get a free room and spend some time in the ATL on Tuesday, the last day of summer vacation.

We hit the Georgia Aquarium first.

My favorites, because they’re really big. I also like the garden eels, sticking straight up in the sand, rising and falling, waving like, well, grass. I would have pet garden eels, if I could. They are even more calming to watch than jellyfish.

There’s a special exhibit at the Georgia Aquarium right now, which is probably one of the dumbest things I’ve ever seen. Planet Shark. A friend had seen it Monday and warned me of its lameness, but it was too late – I’d already purchased the tickets, efficient, for once, unfortunately.

It had a terribly cheap feel to it – some cases set up in between walls made of curtains, ominous music playing. Some shark teeth and jaws.  And then several rooms – I mean, several - dedicated to teaching tolerance. Of sharks. Because there’s injustice about, and it involves the fact that humans are so afraid of sharks, but you know that humans kill a lot more sharks every year than the reverse.  You should be ashamed of yourselves!

What puzzles me most about this is…who has decided this is a problem worth their time?  Why is such a burning injustice that human beings are fearful of creatures three times as big as they are with huge mouths filled with hundreds of teeth?  And if you don’t want me to be afraid of sharks why are you showing me clips from Jaws?

My friend noted something else stupid on a placard than I hope he’ll stop by and enter in the comments here – something about Eurocentric theism replacing shark worship or something – but I won’t attempt it becauseI can’t do it justice.

This was a second visit. It’s fine – pricey, though, and I think I like the Tennessee Aquarium more, and not (because I know that’s what you’re thinking) simply out of loyalty to the home team.

Then IKEA – my first visit.

Lunch at IKEA. Fascinating shot, eh?

It was quite an experience. IKEA is very large. Overwhelming, in a way, the first time, but I think if I go again, I won’t feel the same way.  My oldest, who lives in Atlanta, is a Young Professional and hates the IKEA stuff he has and can’t wait to trade up.  My daughter, 18, has been correctly educated and can lecture you tell you all about  the equivalency of Wal-Mart and IKEA, and that it makes no sense to be snobby about Wal-Mart yet crazy for IKEA.  It’s all cheap stuff made in China, the IKEA stuff having cleaner lines (and I do like the kitchens…..very much..) and European cachet, but in the end and if you care,  probably the worse Environmental Impact, IKEA being the destination store that it is.

I was mainly interested in – first, experiencing it, to see what the fuss was all about – and secondly, testing the goods out in person.  Some items were sturdier than I expected that I filed away in my head for later, others (the couches)  not so much.  I wasn’t really in the market for furniture anyway because  I’m pretty much over constructing my own (another reason to yard sale/estate sale instead),  and if it has hinges – forget it – but I did pick up a few things – the famed IKEA lazy susan (7.99), some great glasses for something like 3.99 for six, and a few other things. Not worth another immediate special trip to Atlanta, but interesting nonetheless.

Michael was all set to go into the child’s area, but then changed his mind at the last minute. Joseph was excited about the store because it was clearly  all about process – follow the arrows, fill out the form – and he is mad for process.

(My oldest told me before I went – “And then you have to sign up for Swedish government health care. It’s really weird.”)

Finally, here.  They’d been there once before, right after it opened, with Mike, and Joseph had been begging to go back.  It was on the way home, so we stopped in.

I’ve seen these Bass Pro Shops from the highway, and thought, that’s a pretty big store, but.. LORDY. They’re big. And they’re full of dead animals. It’s pretty astonishing. It’s like the Field Museum, ammo included.

So we bounced from theme park to theme park that day.  Exhausting. Buy a ticket, gaze at the fish and feel happy and unafraid of the shark!   Buy more stuff, serve up the fish amid tasteful Scandinavian design and feel frugally tasteful!  Buy yet more stuff and reel him in. You’ll feel fierce!

Feel something.

Okay.

(St. George Island, Gulf Coast, last week. No tar balls, no oil – a zillion crabs in the shallows, though. Fascinating.)

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