More Y&G randomness, now at the zoo

Apparently it's my year to just run into people from Youth & Government. Now I'm looking at everyone at Target and in front of me at the grocery store and wondering if they're from Y&G and I somehow don't remember them.

Last Tuesday, with the spousal unit still out of the country (I really need to post about that but it seems like it will take a really long time and I haven't had a really long time to sit down at the computer for a while), I rounded up some free passes and took the boys to Brookfield Zoo. I figured the Stingray Bay exhibit would be a hit with stingray-fascinated N and P always loves the zoo. I apparently made a good choice because N has been asking almost every day since, "We go to zoo today?"

Anyway, we did the stingrays first and that was really cool - one of them totally splashed Bugaboo and I in the face and you really can just lean down and touch them. Totally neat. We wanted to go to the penguins next but I got completely confused and we walked the wrong way and ended up at the dolphins - also a big hit but not the right way.

Course corrected, we were wandering past the new Ibex Island now that they've torn down the old one and moved the ibex to a new home, and as we are walking up to the fence to see what we can see, I realize I'm walking right towards Mike B., advisor from Naperville Central High School. Who also happens to be Assistant Camp Leader Josh's advisor and a sortof co-advisor for Dan-the-Full-Figured-Man. So there's kindof a theme in who I'm running into and it's kindof freaky. Mike's eyes popped out of his head when I told him I'd run into both Josh and Dan the week before at the Arboretum (side note - Josh's eyes popped out of *his* head when I told him on Friday Dan worked at the membership desk, he had no idea). It's definitely strange to see Y&G folks outside of Y&G events but strangely reassuring, too.

So now I'm thinking about future field trips (Centennial Beach in Naperville is coming up next week) and wondering who I might run into there. Eww, that's not a place I want to run into Y&G folks. None of them need to see me in my swimsuit, and vice versa.

Youth & Government randomness

Despite the fact that I live near about 10 high schools that participate in Youth & Government, I don't frequently bump into students that I know (or even people who have heard of the program). But this week was quite the exception to that rule.

Monday, I took P to the first day of his science camp at the Arboretum. While I was dropping him off, his camp leader told him he could put his lunch box in a bin next to the assistant camp leader, Josh. Assistant Camp Leader Josh turns out to be a Josh that I know, personal page to the governor two years ago, advisor to the governor this year, and a student who told me more than once this year that he’s going to run for governor this fall. Random. What are the odds, right?

Then on Tuesday, after I picked P up from camp, we went to the Children’s Garden to hang out; afterwards, we cut through the visitor’s center on the way to the car to enjoy the A/C since it was toasty out in the sun. Walking by the membership desk, I glanced at the person behind it and it is none other than the current Lt. Governor Dan, the full-figured man. Having floored Josh the day before by remembering his name, I was really hoping I could shock Dan by pulling one of his campaign pens out of my purse but alas, I failed (I have a couple of them at home). Probably just as well since I realized later he might have thought that was totally creepy.

We stopped to chat and he said he didn’t realize I lived in the area – I guess I remember what that’s like – the adults at Y&G are like your teachers in grade school who must live at the school and have no life other than school because they are your teacher and you can only identify them as such.

Completely random, though. I have to wonder how many other Y&G connections there are at the Arboretum and how to make use of that.