I tried to play it off, like you know people do when they've got a crush and they're trying to minimize it. I flirted with the rat bastard T Rex who was across the way.
I compared my large talons to his.
Compared my roar to his.
I won. He's dead. And fossilized.
But then I had to eventually get back over to Triceratops and acknowledge something that I'd forgotten about back in 1984. I had wanted to be an archaeologist for sooo long. I mean, at least 6 months. It started at the Omaha Public Library. I was in a summer reading program. Since they didn't have much in my reading level (I was a reading frikkin' genius for my age) I went for the older kids' books. I checked out everything they had on dinosaurs. T Rex scared the bijeezus out of me, but Triceratops was tops. He was cool.
And somehow, I forgot that I'd wanted to get into the field of work that would have put me closer to him. And his cool head.
We spoke briefly, but the thrill was gone. It was more like a pleasant hello, not the teary-eyed reunion that you would think.
