7and8

We went to the NEAQ (New England Aquarium but I like the abbrv.) yesterday to make the most of 7s winter break. I'm not sure if the whole thing is people watching fish or fish watching people. Think of the reciprocal dialogue "Oooh look at that one. Wow, what colors. That one keeps going around in circles. I bet that one will get eaten real soon."
We saw the folks in the unflattering wetsuits feeding the various fish. Two fish would eye a bite and start to move towards it. Either the fast one got to it first or the big one scared the fast one away. Seems like a simple law of nature. Then we went to the Cafe'. The territoriality to find and protect a table was..impressive and appalling. Parents seemed to be the traffic cops; ushering new strangers to empty tables or sacrificing chairs for little ones. If you stepped back to watch this social dance it very much was like feeding time in the tank. People circling and circling. Someone reaches for a coat and the senses of those table-less are heightened. Someone seated jostles and picks up a diaperbag, and fifteen people are there asking if these seats are taken.

There was a very nice Mama fish that was getting ready to go and let us take some seats. She called her boys (I don't remember both names but they were very German and sounded beautiful when said together). I commented and she proudly stated that she was German American. The amusing thing was the German inflection with a Boston accent. One of her boys innocently starts tracing the pattern on the back of 7s chair. It wasn't bothering anyone but it made Mama fish edgy. She asked the boy to stop. She told the boy to stop. She started to threaten and stopped herself. She told him in German, "I know you understand German and I'm only going to say this one more time. Don't - touch - the - CHAIR! Mind you she was not yelling but had that parental admonishing tone. As you might have guessed I know some German, I'd guess I have the vocabulary of a 2-yr-old. A few minutes later she left to visit the sea lions. I thanked her again for the chairs, in German. She was surprised, but bade me a good day more amused than embarrassed.

Yes, Trish, we saw einen haifish.