This past Saturday my wife, daughter, and I traveled to the Pittsburgh Zoo to meet some friends. As you are about to read, it was quite the busy day. I thought I would our day with you, just to give you a glimpse into the like of the strugglingwriter.
6:00 AM – The alarm goes off and I just want to cry. My daughter and I had to take a drive at 1:00 AM (maybe she gets nervous about travel like I do), so I am pretty tired. However, I know the only way we will make it to the zoo at 10:00 is if we leave the house at 7:30, so I soldier towards the shower.
6:30 AM – I leave the shower and wake up my wife, reminding her about the 7:30 departure time. I begin to get nervous that we won’t leave in time. Adding to my anxiety is the fact that I dropped my cell phone the other day and it now has extremely limited reception, meaning if we are late there will probably be no way to let our friends know.
7:00 AM – I wake my daughter and we head downstairs for her breakfast. I normally have a hard time eating when I first wake up, but I force down some of her “O’s” (Cheerios) while she eats her cereal, yogurt, and Puffs.
7:54 AM – This is out actual departure time. Despite our best efforts to pack the night before, we always forget something and have to pack in the morning. As we start on our journey I can’t help but think we’ll be late. I hate being late.
9:50 AM – Thanks to some fast driving (I normally don’t drive too fast) and a hint from my dad that Parkway East would be closed (we hopped in the PA Turnpike insteas), we arrive at the Zoo, excited to see all the animals and amazed we are on time. A small section in the underworld freezes over.
10:00 AM – 12:00 AM – We start on our journey around the zoo. My daughter particularly enjoyed the “kitties” when we were able to get her to look at them and not at all the people. We were able to get a nice picture of the Elephants.
12:30 PM – Having not eaten since my “O’s”, and after not getting much sleep the night before, I begin to feel like this guy:
This guy had the right idea and decided to get a little drink. I was lucky to take the picture when I did, catching him in action.
2:00 PM – We leave the zoo and head over to Kings Family Restaurant. My daughter ate mashed potatoes and gravy, lasagna, some tomato, and some other stuff I can’t remember. She also trashed the place like the tiny rock star she is. I left a little extra tip for the cleanup.
Look tomorrow for part 2 of this epic tale as our adventure is far from over. It is fraught with excitement (seeing family) and peril (getting lost for a half hour and developing the worst headache of my life).
The Struggling Writer 