High Fives this week

So I thought I would take a new approach to blogging: post my top five events of the week.

In no particular order:

1. I learned my design 2 shift at the newspaper I'm working at. Makes me happy! I can do it without supervision, or without any help at all! Unless I have 16 pages to do, then I can worry. But all I do is plug it in, plug it in. The stories, that is. Or the pictures and the headlines. But I'm getting to be a pro! The only thing is, the people in the office don't like whistling or humming! I'm screwed! The problem with that is I whistle or hum without knowing it. Like one of the guy's cell phone went off and the ringtone was Indiana Jones (so cool!). A few minutes later, another guy said, "Here, we don't like whistling, humming, or singing." I didn't even notice I had done that! Sheesh, picky picky.

2. Winning a game of racquetball! I played three games of cutthroat with my dad and another guy. My dad won first, then the other guy, then me. Well, it's a big accomplishment because first off, I sucked it up. Then I gradually warmed up and then I won 14-5-6!! Now, if only I can beat my dad at singles...

3. Getting my scrapbooks in order for assimilation. That should be fun and maybe take up the rest of the summer! I am currently working on taking my baby pictures out of those acidic, horrible-for-archiving pages. I can't believe how cute I am!

4. This weekend was so fun. Why? Because I hung out with my family. We cleaned out the garage, took old clothes to Salvation Army, and watched "Chicken Little" together. Actually, before we watched the movie, my dad felt obligated to go to a barbeque for a friend from work. I went along to keep him from being lonely among the alcohol-guzzling party-goers. Well, turns out that we weren't the only Mormons there as a family from church came to the party as well. We were so surprised! They joined us and another couple who were their visiting the friend of dad's (he was the guy's brother) and funny thing: they're from Farmington, UT. So us Mormons make sure we make a good impression on the National Guard Recruiter and his wife. We ended up having lots of fun and good conversation about the church especially. He even said if I ever was needed a place to crash to look them up in Utah. I thought that was interesting seeing that we just met.

5. Okay, this might be really lame, but I found this really funny latin song about a mammoth - but it's actually really terrible. I first heard this song on a bus in Santo Domingo and I turned to my Nicaraguan companion and asked her about it. She said it wasn't a very good song -- and she was right! This mammoth ends up dying after wanting to learn to smoke, drink, do drugs, and other things. but the music is so cute - I can just forget that I know Spanish. On a better note, I found other music that I had fallen in love with on my mission, which made me very happy.

A dinosaur named Sue

It's my second day on the job as a summer intern for the Rapid City Journal. I've had the privilege today to see a (nearly) living tribute to Johnny Cash's song "A Boy Named Sue." This one, however, takes the form of a 65 million-year-old Tyrannosaurus Rex. Found about 18 years ago 15 miles from Faith, South Dakota, the most complete, intact and well-preserved t-rex skeleton was found. Unfortunately, because it was found on an Indian Reservation, a legal battle ensued, Sue (named for the paleontologist who found it) was put into storage for a time until she was sold at an auction to the Field Museum of Chicago for $8.4 million. That's an expensive set of bones.

Since that time, three traveling exhibits of Sue were created to show him or her (the sex is still unknown) off to the world. One is an international exhibit where currently it is on display in Dubai. Another is a permanent display in Florida at Dino Land or something like that. The last exhibit travels throughout the United States and for the first time will come to back home to Faith for four months.

I drove up with a photographer and videographer to see Sue get put together. A team from the Field Museum had flown in that morning to assemble it for the opening reception Friday. Daryl Van Essen, the main assembly man (I forget his title), compared it to putting Legos together. Maybe a giant set of Legos. Five other men from Faith helped out, but Daryl and Hector, the other Field Museum guy, were the experts. I was looking up from below the 16 foot high hip bone; one challenge caused a dancing movement of Sue as the team moved the hip bone around to secure the two leg bones. It was quite amusing.

However, it was taking a bit of our time (nearly 2 hours since we had arrived) and they were only at the rib cage. They had about four more pieces to go. Plus, the fumes from the propane tank on the forklift were getting to me.

We finished our interviewing and then went to the Sinclair across the street. I started talking with the cashier about Sue and then an older gentlemen walked in swearing about the cones protecting the newly painted cross walk. Rita, the cashier, asked the man about Sue. He chattered away about when Sue was first discovered, about being there and getting to know the paleontologists and especially Sue.

"She was a cute little bugger," he said with a twinkle in his eye. I had to laugh. But my comrades were anxious to leave so we adiosed and left for Rapid City.

No need for a Jurassic Park when we have one right here in South Dakota.