Lizards, and snakes, and spiders - oh my!

I am a lucky girl. Somehow, I managed to have a job that I love; doing work that I love, with people that I love. And get paid to play with tarantulas. The library system presented a program called “Grossology,” aimed at young boys at that special age where they are interested in all things gooey, gross and ultimately hilarious. With an ample dose of potty humor, and plenty of fake vomit, young boys would visit various booths set up around the library to be grossed out. (And secretly learning things like biology, but don’t tell them that. For the kids, it was all about the barf bags.) The Nature Lady was part of Grossology, and the only part that I allowed myself within ten feet of. My fellow sexy librarians and I took turns volunteering to work at different branches helping the Nature Lady out, after seeing the chaos that followed a table full of snakes, lizards, and little boys. I was extremely lucky to assist at two libraries other than my own. So were the animals. During the three Grossology programs, the spider was dropped twice (tarantulas have an exoskeleton that can shatter if dropped far enough), the frog almost stepped on, the ribbon snake dropped and screamed at, the turtle wandered through the bookshelves, and the lizard rescued from riding home on some forgetful boy’s shoulder. It was fun, but it was stressful WORK keeping 2 snakes, a tarantula, a lizard, a newt and a frog alive for 2 solid hours of squealing, hyper 8 year old boys. But, I loved it. And I discovered I have a deep, hidden love for tarantulas.