On Dinosaurs

Today Brandon was reading about dinosaurs. It was a reading comprehension exercise, but he was really distracted and just wanted to talk about dinosaurs. He kept insisting that there was another dino named air-a-dactyl, and I kept insisting that he was incorrect. We never agreed, but upon further research I discovered this.

I was reminded of when, in second grade, I spread a rumor around school that carnivores didn't eat other carnivores. Specifically, I was referring to dinosaurs. I was basically the class dinosaur expert because not only did my parents let me see Jurassic Park, they encouraged my love of the movie by buying me t-shirts and toys for my birthday. I think I was playing dinosaurs one day with my friend Jeff at recess, and his raptor tried to eat my raptor. I didn't want Jeff, who wasn't even allowed to see Jurassic Park to win, so I said that he couldn't eat me because carnivores don't eat other carnivores.

Then it became infallible truth!

My theory was later debunked by some stupid movie we watched on a rainy day. People turned and looked back at me all shocked. I was pretty embarrassed, but it was third grade at this point so it wasn't such a big deal. By third grade my claim to fame was "the only girl that the boys can actually pick for their [enter sport here] team."

That title was later stripped from me also, as a new girl named Lauren moved to town. She wore Air-Jordans all the time and constantly had a super-slick gelled back ponytail. I couldn't compete with that. But then, Lauren was the kind of girl that never, no matter how old she got or how much makeup she wore, looked quite right in a dress or anything remotely girly and, even at that age, I knew I'd rather have my station in life as a secondary pick that can also wear a sundress.