my hopes in the balance... (counted down part 1)

T-Minus: 1 Day!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

(okay i always knew i was a last minute kinda dinosaur, but this is a bit too close for even me!)

_

Location: Otago Museum

Objective: Work, Home, Signature

okay well yet another day at work. however this is NOT like any other day...

this is my LAST day to meet my government criteria! if i fail then i'm in big trouble. like a trouble bigger then any i've ever known!

i'll be deported back to canada... where having no money... i'll be homeless... jobless... friendless... and worst of all surrounded by dinosaurs once again.

my only hope is that today i can convince my bosses here at the otago museum to help me with my last two outstanding criteria by:

• lending me some money so i can rent a place to live ( not just for the government either! craig has told me i have to move out by tomorrow!)

• sign a testimonial as to my dependability

i can't see why they won't say yes to these simple requests. if they don't they'd be out an employee. considering i'm still learning the job does it really make sense to let go such a new fresh asset? my peanut brain is telling me no...

i still have the shift to go though. now that i've gotten a bit more of a handle on my duties i'm feeling a little more brave to wander the museum compared to earlier. not too far from the lobby mind you, but still cool things to just a few metres inside each gallery.

in the discovery corner one of my favs. a microbe-scope! nothing screams science and discovery much more then a microbe-scope (well other then museum!)...

lying nearby were some nice specimens of various things to look at, and get a feel for being a sciencey person...

i've always wished i could be a scientist... people looking up to me cause i'm smart and know stuff. just imagine that... oh well sigh... i can't even meet 3 little criteria from the government. that alone become really smart and educated...

the microbe-scope is pretty fun though! i really enjoyed looking at this horseshoe crab (a critter from the era of us dinosaurs in fact...) up close. real close!

this could be a handy tool in the future!

today i decided i should really check out the third floor. after all if something securityey were to go down up here i'd better at least have a rough idea of what i was getting into...

stepping into the "natural history" (didn't know history could occur unnaturally!?!) gallery i was shocked to look up and see that i wasn't actually in the building! i was outside in a starry night sky! what the?

this was a silly way to design a museum gallery! what happened to visitors if it was a really bad day outside?

then i realized this wasn't actually the sky, the sun was just setting outside (well that and there was a sign saying that this was a recreation of the universe...). oops.

pretty though.

just beyond that was the "actual" natural history gallery (as opposed to empty space...). man the roof of this particular gallery is full of fun stuff...

up in the air hung a giant carnivorous jaw bone (based on the characteristic teeth!). for a second i didn't know what to think... wow cool a giant meat eating thing!... or oh man is this thing going to eat me?... perhaps is that from a prehistoric critter? cause it was pretty big, and i know they don't evolve anymore like they used too...

it in fact turns out to be from a sperm whale. which apparently not only is alive today, but in the waters here around new zealand! wow cool! i gotta try and see me one of these!

well after this fun, but distracting exploring time to get back to work... wandering back into the lobby to resume my patrol of the whole museum i made one last cool find. the skeleton of a sea turtle... not as impressive as a mesozoic archelon, but again things just aren't as big as they were in the old skool days. kinda sad to see the bones of one of these guys. their much pretty in the water like the one at the vancouver aquarium...

keeping watch over the whole entry ways in the museum from the lobby may be efficient, but boy is it boring!

the shift just seemed to take forever. finally though as morning broke i was relieved of duty as the day staff showed up. now was the time to see the bosses, and finally finish off my criteria and get down to building up a life here in new zealand.

there is just one thing people of the innerweb...

they said NO!!!

i'm not kidding. when i asked for those two simple things so i could keep working there they told me

"look we are ecstatic to have you on the team traumador. the thing is we can't give you the money so early in your being employment. additionally we don't want to gamble the museum's reputation by vouching for you when you've only just started here."

uh am i having a nightmare people of the innerweb?

how is that i could come this close to victory only to have it snatched away...

To be Continued...